


Bottle

by CrashDevil (cjdevlin19)



Series: Red Queen Chronicles [1]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, F/M, Forced Abortion, Mutilation, Rape/Non-con Elements, Scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-09
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-05-12 21:27:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 17
Words: 47,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5681485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cjdevlin19/pseuds/CrashDevil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony looked up from his tablet as security escorted a young blonde woman into his office. Twenty minutes before, he couldn't have picked her out of a crowd. He hadn't known her name, nor her position in his company. Now, he knew that Cassandra Campbell had been working as a lab assistant for 3 years. Tony knew she was 24 years old, that she had an impeccable attendance record and, according to her file, she was on the fast-track to a promotion. He also knew she was a liar.</p>
<p>*********************************************</p>
<p>A lab tech with dubious genetics and a history with the new Director of SHIELD. She's been working in New York since right before the invasion, but she doesn't like to talk about it. What does she have to do with Loki and what will happen once he comes back?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It's a magical... lie.

**Author's Note:**

> I took a few liberties with what the scepter can do. Also, I work in info from the comics like the fact that Hawkeye was married to Mockingbird or that Red Skull had a disappointing daughter. Please leave Kudos!

Tony looked up from his tablet as security escorted a young blonde woman into his office. Twenty minutes before, he couldn't have picked her out of a crowd. He hadn't known her name, nor her position in his company. Now, he knew that Cassandra Campbell had been working as a lab assistant for 3 years. Tony knew she was 24 years old, that she had an impeccable attendance record and, according to her file, she was on the fast-track to a promotion. He also knew she was a liar.

Tony stood and offered her a chair, which she took. "So, I've spent the last few days going over all the files Natasha Romanoff released to the internet. A lot of info to go through, most of which I already knew, but there was one can of snakes." He handed her the tablet. A picture of her, probably about 16 years old at the time, smiled up at her.

"A completely redacted file that doesn't even name you. If I hadn't remembered seeing you in the lab last month, you'd've gotten away with it."

The green eyed woman set the tablet aside on the opposite office chair. "Gotten away with what, sir? What are you accusing me of?"

"Well, you're S.H.I.E.L.D., obviously. Fury send you to spy on me? Or maybe you're H.Y.D.R.A. sent here to Nazi up the place?"

"Mr. Stark, I would love to give you the answers you're looking for, but I'm not allowed to discuss my situation without the express consent of a level 8 or higher SHIELD agent. Since most agents of that prominence were HYDRA, or killed by HYDRA when they took the Triskellion, all I can say is this: I am not a trained agent of any agency. I am not a spy. I am just a lab tech."

"Why don't you go ahead and tell him about it? It's been a while since I've heard the story." A familiar female voice said from the doorway.

"Agent Hill." The blonde stood, nodding at the older woman.

Maria shut the door behind her and walked over to the desk. "SHIELD doesn't exist anymore, Cassie. You don't need permission to tell your story."

"I doubt Director Fury or Agent Coulson would feel the same."

"Well, unfortunately, they're both as dead as SHIELD." Maria countered.

_Exactly_. The younger woman thought, before shaking her head. "Fury found me in a lab. Somewhere in the mountains in Europe, I was never really told where. Fury called me an experiment, but I was just supposed to be an heir, a less disappointing one than my sister was."

Maria stepped in, then. "She was created in a HYDRA lab using Red Skull's genetic material."

"Fury named me 'Joanna Schmidt' so everyone would know where I came from. I was just happy to have a name. Phil... Agent Coulson took me to the Fridge. He made sure that no one was too hard on me. I was only 10 at the time. He brought me books, convinced Fury to let me learn. After educating myself quietly in my cell for 10 years, Phil brought my case to Fury. I'd shown no abnormal physical or psychological signs, nothing that would warrant keeping me locked up. Coulson convince him that I deserved a place in society. The only concern was society's reaction to me. Steve Rogers was of particular concern. Fury felt that Captain Rogers might... be... enraged by my very existence. He has very strong feelings when it comes to the Red Skull and Arnim Zola."

"Cap doesn't seem like the kind to rage against a woman, demon-spawn or not." Tony replied, pulling a glass off of his desk.

"There are videos, therapy sessions from the year after they thawed him out, that prove our concern was founded. I'm sure you could find them on the 'net. They were SHIELD files."

Tony nodded, letting it go, for now. "Okay. So, what? Hide in plain sight?"

"Sorta. Phil had Pepper place me in your California lab because he knew that... if Rogers found out that I existed, you, Pepper and Happy wouldn't let me be... hurt."

"Pepper and Happy, maybe, but I don't know... your father was an evil bastard."

"Who was dead long before I was even a thought." She defended. "I learned about Hitler the same way everyone else my age did; through books and the History Channel."

"Let the poor girl go back to work, Tony. The lab will fall apart without her." Pepper said, walking into the office without knocking.

"Thank you, Miss Potts. That's very kind."

"Just, uh, one more thing. You said you were in California. When'd you transfer?"

"A year ago, sir. Just before the initial construction was completed." She answered, turning halfway to the door.

"So, you were here when the Chitauri attacked?" Hill asked.

Cassie swallowed hard, hoping it wasn't as audible to them as it was to her. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"You're not the only one. Company's got shrinks if you need one. Get back to work." Tony said, nonchalantly, but the young woman thought she heard some genuine empathy behind the words.

"Maria, can I have a word on the way back to the lab?"

"Of course."

They walked a moment in silence before Cassie stopped. Maria turned to her.

"We both know Phil isn't dead."

Hill scoffed. "He was stabbed, in the heart, by an Asgardian. He died, Cassie."

"That doesn't mean he's dead, Maria. I've got one word for you, and after I say it, I want no more lies or half truths." Maria waited, expectantly. "TAHITI."

Maria blanched. "He told you about TAHITI?"

"Yes. It seems he wasn't very good with orders when it came to me. I know Fury wouldn't let him die. I've heard rumors about a silver-tongued agents with a receding hairline, flying around with a small squad, looking into enhanced individuals. Finding new people for the Index. I've heard things about him being back. Took a long vacation to recoup, but he's just fine now. After being stabbed in the heart, by an Asgardian. Sounds shady to me."

Maria shook her head, derisively. "What do you want, Campbell?"

"A phone number. He ditched his old cell long ago, but I read some internal emails that I probably shouldn't have seen that were all about you helping Phil escape from the Yukon. You have to have contact info. Please."

"Cassie... I don't think this is a good idea."

"I spent a year thinking he was dead, Hill. I just want to hear his voice. That's all. You aren't a SHIELD commando, any more. Fury faked his death and fled, so you don't need to run interference, any more. Besides, a pretty little cellist knocked me out of the game before Phil even died. I just want to talk to him."

"Fine." Maria said, pulling out her phone. "I will give you his SAT phone number, but... don't expect it to be like your remember it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cassie waited until she was home to dial the number. "Pablo Jimenez." The voice on the other end answered.

"That's a pretty good accent for a dead man."

As the silence dragged on, Cassie thought to what Hill had said.

"Jo?" Coulson questioned.

Cassie could swear she felt her heart fall. "No. It's Cassie, now. Don't you remember?" She knew he didn't and she knew that Hill had been trying to warn her.

"I don't. Did you escape when Garret hit the Fridge? How'd you get my number?"

"They fucked with your memories when they brought you back, didn't they?" Her voice broke as she battled her anger and sadness.

"How did you... I'm a little lost here, Joanna. You seem quite upset that SHIELD dug around in my head."

"It's Cassie, Phil. I know Fury didn't approve, but... I didn't think he'd take it from you." She said, sliding down the wall to crumple on her tile floor.

"Take what? I'm a little hazy on a lot of what happened before Loki killed me."

"My name, Phil. My beautiful, alliterative name." She sniffled through her tears. "I came up with this alias while laying on my bed in your arms, after our first time together."

She fought to compose herself, knowing the silence on the other end was not his fault.

"Together?" He finally whispered. "I... with you?"

"Maybe, it's better that you don't remember." She sniffled.

"No, wait. Cassie. I'm sorry. I thought they'd just taken my memories of Project TAHITI, which I remember now, but I don't remember anything about you past your 16 evaluation."

_Of course._ She thought. _My 17 eval was when Phil realized his attraction._ "You remember TAHITI? Then go from there. You came to me, stressed that GH-325 was having such horrible side effects."

A moment of silence was followed by a low gasp. "You convinced me to resign from the project. I remember. My god. Can... can I talk to you, face to face?"

"I work at Stark Tower. I live in the Bronx. Why don't you access some more of those memories and remember my name, come find me?"

As she hung up without a goodbye, she heard Phil say, "Skye, can you trace-."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next night as Cassie was walking home from the subway, she heard footsteps behind her. She reached for her pepper spray, but dropped it back into her purse when she heard, "Cassie Campbell, because alliterative names are fun."

"You cheated." She said, turning to him. She couldn't help a smile. Same old Phil Coulson in his same old suit. "You had your tech trace my call."

"But the name reminded me. And the picture. Brought back everything... I think. I remember coming back to Malibu after a mission to an empty apartment. Pepper told me that you'd requested a transfer... as soon as possible."

Cassie sighed, leaned against a blue post box. "When you left for Portland, I was in your eyes. You were defying orders to be with me, telling me about secret projects I shouldn't know about, because I was all you cared about. When you came back, Audrey had replaced me. She was what you really needed, I was just the girl who gave you the confidence to go after her."

Coulson's nose wrinkled in disgust. "Ech, don't call yourself a girl. That just makes me seem skeevy in the whole thing."

"I was almost 21 at the time, Phil. Long past being a girl. But emotionally... I spent my life in a lab and a cell. I couldn't compete with a first chair cellist who had her act together. I left quietly, and I think that was better for both of us."

She could tell he agreed. "So, why the call? Why now?"

She pulled away from the mailbox. "Well, SHIELD has fallen apart. After everything you've given them, I wanted to make sure you were okay. And hearing your voice after thinking you might really be dead..." She shrugged.

"Well, here I am."

She suddenly found herself with nothing to say. "So... have you heard from Fury?"

"What, you didn't get his number from Hill?"

She started walking toward her apartment again. "Nope. She's still trying to convince me that he's dead. Not that I really have nice words for him knowing that he took us out of your head."

"He's off in Europe, somewhere, anyway." They arrived at the door of her building in silence. "I tried to stop and talk to you when I dropped off the files to Stark last year. I saw you in the lab. I wanted to... but you didn't seem... you were busy." He concluded.

She nodded. "I was the only tech back then. There was still construction, we were running a skeleton crew."

A look of recognition crossed Coulson's face. "You weren't in the building when Loki got there, were you?"

"I'd rather not talk about it." She said.

"You were, weren't you?"

"Phil, the bastard who killed you took the building. I'm lucky to be alive. I'm lucky to be sane. I maintain sanity by not talking about it. I bottle. I'm good at bottling. Just don't touch the bottle."

"I'm working to rebuild SHIELD. You should join."

"I think that'd be a mistake. I'm just a lab tech. Can't shoot, can't fight. Don't have the big brains. And with the HYDRA infiltration and my history with you... it's just begging for trouble."

"Well, you have my number. I have your address. You need me, I'll be here."

"Of course. Good luck, Phil." She said, patting his shoulder before heading inside.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cassie sat on her little brown couch, her head hanging low as sobs racked her body. Everyone seemed to be mentioning it, the worst day of her life. Her hand rubbed against her chest, over her heart. She stood on shaky legs as her mind involuntarily replayed the raven-haired Asgardian walking into the lab and pulling her from her hiding spot under the lab tables.

He'd flicked her name tag. "'C. Campbell'. I think not. Embarrassed of your father's works, Joanna? Too ashamed to wear your legacy in your name?"

She'd been terrified, unable to speak. She didn't question how he knew her real name.

"You think you're a scientist, but underneath that scared Midgardian exterior, beats the heart of the super-soldier who built HYDRA from the ground up. His blood flows through you."

"No. I'm not him. I'm just normal." She'd squeaked.

Loki had shaken his head and clicked his tongue. "You truly wish you were. But that's just the morals SHIELD forced upon you. What's really in your heart?"

Cassie started hyperventilating as she remembered his scepter touching her chest. Her heart rate had skyrocketed for a moment as her muscles strengthened under her skin. Her mind had gone into overdrive.

"What is your name?"

"Joanna Schmidt."

"Who are you, Midgardian?"

She remembered smirking. "Red Skull."

"And what is it you want to do, Red?"

"I want to run analysis on my blood and reverse engineer the super soldier serum in order to give you an army of soldiers to command."

He grabbed her hair and twisted, his left hand moving to rest over her lower abdomen. "Later. I want my turn with you, first."

He had taken her, right there in the lab, beaten her, and used a small triangular blade to carve deep into her chest. The rough way he took her had given her pain for weeks. But she hadn't cared while enthralled. She'd woken from her daze the next day, in the lab surrounded by samples of her blood and random slides and printouts. She'd been deeply confused as to why an Asgardian prince had chosen her for that. Rape was usually a power play, but he most certainly was in power of everything at that point.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cassie walked out of her apartment and headed for the bar down the street. She didn't really want to socialize, but she knew she was much less likely to break down in front of other people. _Time to go use a bottle to help me bottle._

"You ever miss it? The 'no thinking, no conscience, just follow the orders without a question' empty-headedness?"

She turned to the voice in her apartment's side alley. She'd never met him, but she recognized Clint Barton, Hawkeye, from the news.

"I-I don't know what you mean."

"I spent a long while with him in my head. Sometimes, it feels like I'm still following his orders. Sometimes, I just wish I was. Because it was so easy to just give myself to him. And I hate that." Clint sighed deeply. "I can recognize the signs of someone under his thrall, though, having been under it for so long."

Cassie felt her face go pale.

"I deleted the security footage for you. It was like watching a poor quality snuff film, except you didn't die at the end." He jumped down from the fire escape he'd been perched on. "I thought maybe he was just having his way with you, but when he left, you just poured some alcohol on your wounds like it was any other Tuesday. Didn't even flinch."

Her heart fell. She hadn't thought of the security footage when she destroyed all evidence of her awakened super powers.

"Don't worry. I'm the only one who saw. And I'd count that as a blessing."

She nodded, relieved. "So, how can I help you, Agent Barton?"

"SHIELD is dead, it's just Clint, now." He cleared his throat. "I heard that the bastard is dead. I figured you would be the right person to take for a drink to celebrate."

"To mourn, you mean?"

Clint nodded, once. "A little of both."

"I was going to have a drink, anyway, so I suppose you can buy me one, Clint."


	2. What I Aim For

"So, what are you?" Clint asked over his beer.

"What do you mean?"

"Loki doesn't go for human women. He thinks he's a God. He wouldn't have... claimed you if you weren't something special. And you seemed a bit too interested in your blood while you were in that fever dream."

Cassie sighed and downed the rest of her beer. "You were SHIELD, so, I'll tell you. My father was a superhuman. Like Captain America, but... you know, more German. I wasn't anything special before Loki touched me with that staff. SHIELD did 10 years of extensive testing, but after... I'm the heir HYDRA wanted me to be. I've been hiding it for a year. I'm not human, any more. That's probably why he, you know, marked me."

"How'd that heal?" Clint asked, putting his hand up to order another round.

"It scarred about as much as you can expect. If I wasn't science savvy, it would have been worse. Couldn't really go to the hospital without bringing about an investigation. I imagine all of your wounds were mental."

"Yeah. Mostly. Nat helped me with those. And shooting the ass with an exploding arrow helped a bit."

"Wish I could have seen that."

"Kinda." Clint finished for her. She nodded. "So, what did he say about you to make you go lab crazy?"

"He told me to live my legacy. Then he left and I was filled with this urge to recreate the serum that turned simple Steve Rogers into Captain America. I'm just glad I failed."

"I almost killed everyone I care even a little bit about. I'm pretty happy I failed there."

"Well, cheers for failure." She offered her glass to him and he lightly touched his rim to hers.

"So, you hide well. You'd never know from looking at you that you're a super soldier."

"Not a soldier. Just super. But I appreciate that. It's a lot harder than it seems. Took me weeks of breaking beakers before I got used to my strength."

"Maybe you should talk to Banner, he knows a lot about living with unnatural strength. He might even be able to help turn you back."

"No. I don't think so. It's not like he can go in and take Red Skull out of my genetics. Besides, I'd really like for Captain Rogers to never know I exist. Two Avengers already know whose daughter I am, I don't know if I want a third to know."

"Just think about it. Or maybe you could tell Stark. He's pretty much a genius."

"I think I'd rather just drink a lot. Drink until I can't remember where my scars came from. I mean, I don't see my liver shutting down any time soon. It was running at 100% last time I did my panel."

"Well, then, we're gonna need shots."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cassie wished she was drunk. But with her body working in optimal conditioning and her purse out of cash, she was only tipsy as Hawkeye walked her to her apartment building. He, however, was plastered.

"I feel like I should be walking you home, Barton."

"I'm fine. I'm an Avenger. I can walk home drunk in New York City." He said, as they made it to her building.

"No, come on, Clint. You don't have a bow, or a gun, on you, You probably couldn't reliably shoot either of those things, anyway. I've got a pretty comfy couch, and it's not like you've got work tomorrow. Just come up."

Clint looked up at her door, where she was standing, then sighed and followed her.

She grabbed a pillow off her bed and a blanket out of her closet and carried them to the couch. "Be careful with that blanket. It was a gift."

"From an ex?"

"From Phil Coulson."

He nodded in understanding, before bending over to fumble with the laces on his boots.

"Well... have a good-"

"Could I see it?" Cassie turned back to him. He had his shoes off and was sitting on the edge of the couch. "The scar. What he wrote?"

"I haven't... no one's seen it."

"Can't bottle everything forever. Can't keep your shirt on forever." He said, flippantly.

"I can keep it to myself." She whispered.

"But you shouldn't." He said, nonchalantly. Cassie couldn't help but be amazed at his drunken wisdom.

She swallowed, then took a steadying breath as she pulled down the zipper on her jacket. Her hands shook a bit as she fumbled with her blouse buttons. She let her arms rest over the fabric of her bra as her shirt hung loose. She sat in front of Clint on the edge of her wooden coffee table. Clint reached forward and let his rough fingertips dance lightly across the scar tissue spelling 'MINE' across her left breast.

"He thought he was going to win and you would be just his." He said, before reaching up to trace the Asgardian runes along her collarbone." What's the Viking scratches mean?"

"Um." Cassie had to battle her embarrassment in order to speak. No one had seen her shirtless since Loki, no one with her consent since Phil. "This one is Lies... Deception, according to my Viking runes book. It'd be closest to Asgardian alphabet. This one is, like, King or God."

"His name?"

"His title, yes."

Clint reached over and rubbed a calloused hand lightly across her cheek. "At least he didn't scar your pretty face." He whispered before lightly slapping her cheek and lying back and covering himself with the green knit throw.

Cassie allowed herself to chuckle at her own expense as she walked into her room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cassie woke up at 6 am and quietly dressed for work, applying modest make-up before quietly leaving her room to start a pot of coffee. As she opened her door, a scent of bacon and coffee hit her. She'd been expecting to find Clint still asleep on the couch, but instead she found him leaning against her fridge, eating a BLT.

"There's some bacon left in the pan. Coffee's ready."

"Thank you."

"Best hangover cure ever." He said, gesturing with the sandwich.

"I know." She responded, grabbing a mug from the mug tree on the counter. "It's mostly the sodium and the bread. I used to do that every Sunday morning. I drank a lot once they finally let me out of the Fridge. I had a lot to celebrate... back then."

"Bet you haven't needed a BLT in a year."

She shook her head as she put the cream back in the refrigerator. "No matter how much I drink. Just a bit of coffee gets me going."

"You know, there are laser treatments for scars now. I'm sure Stark would pay for it if he knew Loki had done the damage... in Tony's own house." Clint said, brushing crumbs off his hands.

"Yes, but that would require questions and answers and investigation and wondering what happened to the security footage. I'd rather just ignore it all and keep my shirt on."

"But you look so much better with it off." He said, with a small smirk.

Cassie could feel her cheeks flush deep red as she looked down at her coffee. "Was hoping you'd forgotten that part."

"I try not to forget grabbing a beautiful woman's chest."

She reached past him and grabbed 3 rashers of bacon from the pan. "You really are laying it on thick, huh? You keep making me blush, Barton, I really will look like my father."

"Sorry. Default." He said, with a chuckle. "Had to be charming or I never would have gotten girls."

"What, girls didn't find archery and arrow-making sexy when you were younger?"

"Do they now?" He asked, incredulously.

"Well, some bad-ass archer helped save New York from an alien invasion. It's gone up a bit in popularity."

"I thought Iron Man and Captain America saved New York?"

"They do get a disproportionate amount of the publicity." She mused, her face returning to it's normal pale color again.

"Maybe next time aliens attack, it'll be me and Nat with the glory."

"Maybe." She responded, placing her empty mug in her sink.

Clint leaned down next to her ear and quietly said, "Maybe it'll be you. You are super now."

She turned and shook her head. "I don't know how to fight. The first Chitauri to find me would be the one to kill me."

"A little Ops training and you'd be fine."

She put her hand on his chest and gently pushed him away so she could walk out of her little kitchen. "I've kinda always seen myself as a Science and Technology person, in SHIELD term. Not really Ops material."

"You know, Ops agents aren't stupid. You can't be stupid and do what we do. And before you bring up education, I have street smarts."

"I got my GED in the Fridge and I'm less than a year from my Bachelor's in Biology. You have none of that and you've been out in the real world your whole life."

"What do I need all that for? I'm a superhero."

Cassie laughed as she grabbed her purse. "Okay, well, I gotta head to work. This isn't the best neighborhood and I only have the one set of keys, so if you could just... pull one of your superhero tricks and lock up when you leave."

"No. I'll pull one of my thief tricks for you, though."

She couldn't help but smile in amazement. "I think I'd like to have a conversation about your past one day, Clint. Unfortunately, I'm about to miss my train, so that day is not today."

"My number is in your phone. Call when you want a drink or conversation, or some Ops training."

"You don't quit, do you?"

"I always hit what I aim for, Campbell. You should know that about me."

"Noted, Hawkeye. I'm out."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When she returned, her door was still locked. She walked to all of her windows and found each of them locked except the small window in her bathroom. She opened it to double check that there was no fire escape under it.

"Wow, he must've been a great thief."

"He was. Until he grew a conscience and joined up with the Strategic Homeland blah, blah, blah." The voice coming from behind her stopped her dead. She felt frozen as her heart rate went through the roof. She forced herself to turn and look into her bedroom. She could feel herself shaking as she stared at Loki, standing in her bedroom next to her dresser. "Did you miss me?" He said, with a smirk.

Cassie's adrenaline called for her immediate response as she settled on flight, running for her bedroom door. She slipped, hitting the floor as Loki appeared in front of her. "Did you think I carved your skin for fun, Joanna? Did you think I would not be watching you, that I would not be coming back for you?"

She hugged her knees to her chest. He leaned down next to her crouched form. "You are mine. You have brought 2 men to your home within the last spin of your Earth. You will bring no more. Not Clinton, not the SHIELD agent, none of the young males who fantasize about you in Stark's tower. You are mine. Do you understand me?"

"Yes." She whispered. "I understand." When no more threatening words came, she looked up to see that she was alone. Her mind racing, she pulled her phone from her pocket and started scrolling through her contacts. She got to an entry listed as 'Hawk' and dialed out.

"Clint... I think I'm losing my mind." She said, as soon as the call connected.

"What happened?" He asked, concern ringing through his words.

"I just had an LSD-grade hallucination. Loki was here. He was in my room. He told me that I was his and that he'd be coming back for me. He was so pissed off that you'd been over. Clint... I've never... it was so real."

"Look, I'm sure it's just stress. Do you want me to come down there, check the place out?"

"No!" She responded quickly and a little too loudly. "No, he's not... he's not here. I would really like to be not here, too, though. Can I take you up on that drink offer?"

"Sure. There is a place near the Tower. Meet me at Stark's and we can head there together?"

"Thank you, Clint."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The prickly feeling on the back of Cassie's neck went down a bit as she approached the Tower and saw Clint leaning against the wall. "Hey."

"Hey. You okay?"

"Yeah. So, where are we headed?"

"Block East. Dive bar."

"Thank god. Let's go."

They walked in silence, Cassie just basking in the feeling of safety. Clint opened the door and held it for her. She walked in and wrinkled her nose at the smell, but walked to the bar. Clint ordered four shot of vodka and handed two to Cassie, before leading her toward the back corner. As soon as she could see the corner booth, she recognized Tony sitting with his back to the wall. She turned, quietly hoping to leave, but Clint put his hand on her shoulder.

"You don't have to talk to him, but I recommend it."

She sighed and sat down in the booth across from Tony. She downed her two shots rapidly and reached for one of Clint's.

"Robin Hood says you have issues. Issues that I should care about as an Avenger, not as the guy who puts money in your wallet."

As Cassie downed the third shot, she closed her eyes. "I was enthralled by Loki when he took Stark Tower. He raped me, carved my chest up with Asgardian text but worse, he broke my DNA. He unlocked whatever part of my father was inside of me. I've been trying to hide it for a year and tonight I think the stress has finally broken my mind because I saw him. I saw Loki and he was so pissed that I was trying to have a life again."

"So, what, you haven't donned a spandex suit and started working to clean up the Bronx, yet?" Tony quipped.

"Excuse me?" Cassie asked, her eyes opening in surprise.

"You don't see it this way, I'm sure, but this is a gift. To hide it away and never use it is cowardice. Your father was such a horrible person that he stopped being human so that he could be more horrible. You've been running from his past since HYDRA created you. Now, you have an opportunity to make up for his villainy, and your sister's, for that matter. You're smart. I mean, you work for me, so that's a given. Now, you're genetically revved up, you'd be a perfect addition to the Avengers."

"There's two problems with that. The Avengers are a group brought together during a time of emergency by Nick Fury, who happens to be dead. And I can't work-"

"I can call the Avengers." Tony interrupted. "And if this is about Stars and Stripes, you'll be fine. You'd be surrounded by other superhumans, me in my suit and Katniss over there. Even our resident Russian has reason to keep Rogers on the straight and narrow, so you'd never have to worry about it. There is no reason for you to say 'no'. And if you are seeing Loki, maybe he's not really dead. Maybe he tricked Thor with his out-of-character sacrifice, which makes a lot more sense when you think about it. Maybe he thinks you belong to him and he's coming to take what he wants and you better know how to defend yourself this time. No time like the present to start training."

She took a few deep breaths to steady herself. She had just assumed she was going crazy. She'd never considered that Loki might actually still be alive. She turned to Clint. "You really do hit what you aim for."

"I did warn you." Clint said with a shrug.

"And you're gonna need to move into the Tower. Can't have an Avenger living in the Bronx."

"You want me to move into the building where I spend 10 hours of my day working?"

"It'd make for a shorter commute. Besides, it's not that bad. There are some one-bedroom condos on the floors beneath the Penthouse that I added for Avengers and employees in need. Since you kinda count as both right now..."

"Sir. If I may speak as one Avenger to another.. you talk too much."

"Pepper says that, too. I guess I really do like the sound of my own voice. Come on. One of you drink that and we'll head to the Tower. I have way too much money to let Avengers sit here and drink rat piss."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cassie stepped into the elevator next to Tony. She'd been in this elevator almost every day for months, but she'd never noticed that the buttons stop at 50.

"Okay, Jarvis. Take us to level 69."

"Right away, sir." A British-accented voice came through the speakers.

"So, that's how you get to the top of the building."

"Assuming I don't fly, yeah." Tony said. A minute later, the doors opened up and Ton stepped out. "Which apartment is biggest?"

"6906, sir, by 152.8 square feet." Jarvis answered.

"All right. Print her up a card and give her access to the voice controls in the elevator. This one is yours." He said, opening her door and stepping inside.

Cassie stepped inside, setting the photo album and knit blanket that she'd retrieved from her apartment on a small table in the entrance hall. Her boots thudded on the hard wood floors as she walked into the apartment's living room. A small brown leather sofa and a recliner were arranged around an oak coffee table and in front of a wood and glass entertainment center. She could see a sound bar and a stereo alongside the 55 inch flat screen tv. The white shag rug under the coffee table was immaculate. She spun around a bit.

"Gas range in the kitchen. French door fridge. 1200 watt microwave. Some other stuff Pepper picked out. She tells me that we're gonna be dropping off some food in the morning. Some of your clothes. It's all yours now. Only me, you and Jarvis can open the door. Utilities paid, cable, WiFi. And this." He said, pulling a small metal orb with a tiny black button on it. "Loki comes to call, push the button and roll it to the middle of the room. It takes instant 360 panoramic pictures of the room and sends them to my tablet, suit, and phone. Where-ever I am, whatever I am doing, I will see what's happening. Hopefully, I'm not in my own fight at the time."

"Thank you, Tony. I feel a lot safer here. And I'm not just talking about the pimp I lived next to always trying to recruit me."

"I could comment, but I'm choosing not to. Get some sleep. You have a lot to do in the lab tomorrow. And when you get done there, come down to B3 and Barton can start your training."

"Yes, sir."

"'Tony' is fine. Just not in front of the other lab rats."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cassie lay on top of the comforter in her new queen be and wrapped the knit blanket around herself. She fell asleep quickly, but woke an hour later to see Loki standing in her bedroom doorway.

"My words just flow past you like dust, don't they?" He said, walking to the foot of her bed. "I came to you and reminded you of who you belong, something I ought not have to do since I etched a daily reminder into your bosom. But I did, as assistance in you not further enraging me. Yet, the very first thing you do is call to Clinton. Then, you vacate the place I have allowed you to reside and lay here. Were I not so cynical, I would say you came here because of the wonderful memories of our oh, so short time together. Alas, I am a realist and I can only assume that your new living arrangements have more to do with protection garnered from the metal man upstairs, than fond nostalgia for me."

Cassie grabbed the orb from under her pillow, pushing the button as she sat up, and discretely rolling it to the foot of the bed. "Please, don't hurt me."

"Hurt you? What gave you that idea? I don't want to hurt you, Joanna. Just like everyone else on Midgard, I just want to rule you."

Cassie looked around, hoping for Tony to show. "But I'm not like everyone else, am I? You didn't... carve any of the other Midgardians. You didn't.. I saw the footage of Germany. You barely looked at anyone there, except that old man who refused to kneel. You found me kneeling, cowering, so it wasn't the challenge. What is it about me, Loki? Why am I yours?"

"Because you're going to give me my army. And strong children, half super-human, half Gods, who will succeed me. You will be the Queen I never could have gotten on Asgard. The whole 'human Queen, halfling progeny' thing will make me a much more likable ruler."

"You... what?" She asked, confused.

"I don't call you 'queen' lightly, Joanna. In my many centuries, I've only ever offered that term to you. You will be my queen, the creator and leader of my armies, until such time as your human blood rebels and leaves you cold."

"You made that decision in the two seconds it took you to pull me out from under the lab table?"

"Oh, no. I knew about you before I ever stepped foot in this monument to Stark's narcissism."

"How?"

"Your friend, Barton, knew all about you. He told me everything I needed to know, Joanna."

"That's not my name!" She shouted, swiping at him with her hand. He disappeared right as Tony opened her bedroom door, repulsor beams ready.

"You okay?"


	3. Modesty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki's back. Avenger's assemble.

Cassie sat in a security room down the hall from the lounge Tony had chosen to debrief the Avengers. She could see boots swinging slightly from the rafters. She knew it was Clint. The next face she saw, however, was Steve Rogers'. A pit formed in her stomach as she remember the man threatening to rip the Red Skull and anyone affiliated with him to pieces. She calmed herself with the thought that he didn't know she existed. The red-headed Russian came in and sat down, prompting Clint to jump down and sit next to her. Cassie felt there was more than just partnership between the two of them, and that made her a bit jealous. Banner vacated his spot near the computer to sit next to Rogers.

"All right. We have a problem." Tony said, tapping on his tablet to make some pictures pop up on the screen in front. "These pictures were taken last night right here in the Tower. That is Loki. Not dead."

"Who is the girl?" Natasha asked.

"She's not important. What's important is that Loki tricked Muscles. He isn't dead and he isn't rotting in an Asgardian prison, so he could be up to anything." Stark covered.

"What does the girl have to do with him? Perhaps that will lead us to his intentions." Banner suggested.

"What does Loki want with her?" Rogers asked.

"Well, we aren't completely sure. We know it's not 100% sexual, but that does play some part."

"Sexual. Loki thinks he's a god. He's not going to fall for a human." Natasha said.

"Human love was good enough for the Greeks. Besides, no one said anything about him falling. She's not the important part of this." Tony reiterated.

"If Loki is... attracted to an Earth girl, she must be more than human. Who and what is she?" Steve asked, leaning forward.

"No one. It's just a 'need to know'..."

"Tony, what are you hiding?"

"Me. He's hiding me." Cassie said, walking into the lounge area. She caught Clint's eyes, then quickly looked away.

"Well, pardon me, ma'am, but... who the hell are you?" Steve asked.

"I-I don't have a birth name. The scientists in the lab that created me just called me '452' or, ahem, 'Junior'. When Nick Fury took me, he named me 'Joanna Schmidt', after the man who contributed half of my genetics."

She could see the rage flare up inside Captain Rogers. Cassie looked to Tony's familiar face for comfort and the strength to keep speaking.

"I was human, normal. SHIELD did extensive testing. I spent ten years in a SHIELD facility having every bit of HYDRA indoctrination reversed. All I wanted was to live my own life. Agent Coulson made sure I got that. I'd spent most of my life in labs, so I knew my way around them. Phil got me a lab assistant job in one of Tony's laboratories in California." She swallowed, hard. "I took the name 'Cassandra Campbell'. After two years, I decided to drop off SHIELD's radar and I put in for a transfer here. I worked in peace for 2 months before Loki stole the Tesseract and everything exploded. He touched me with that scepter and... he took out everything that was me and made me what he wanted me to be. I stopped being 'Cassie' and became 'Junior', again. He broke... he broke my DNA. Turned me into my father."

The room collectively flinched as Steve stood, his chair flying out behind him. "Whatever Loki wants with her, he can take her." Steve growled, stomping toward the door.

"He already did." She whispered. Steve stopped and turned his head, slightly.

"He took my mind when he enthralled me. He took control of my body. He took my normality, my humanity, when he turned me into... this. And he took me because I couldn't say 'no' while under his thrall."

She sighed, deeply and stepped toward Steve. "Now, I can't claim that I was pure when he took me, and I know that between your 1940's ideals and my parentage, you probably think I deserved it, but I did nothing... nothing in my life to deserve what he did to me."

The anger drained from his face. "No one deserves that, Miss."

Bruce cleared his throat. "If you could illuminate... his interest in you?"

"It's purely for his own benefit. He wants an army." She answered, leaving out the part about him naming her his queen.

"What?" Stark, Clint, and Steve said.

"The Chitauri were temps. Mercenaries who would have left as soon as Loki was given the keys to Earth, so to speak." She sat down near the front of the room. "When he touched me with that staff, when I become... what he wanted, I promised him an army. I was supposed to reproduce the super soldier serum from my blood so that he could turn all of his thralls into an army of super soldiers. Fortunately, I only had 12 hours to work on it before you all beat him down and took him off-world. I woke up after the battle, with the basics of a hypothesis of how to recreate the serum. I destroyed everything. Every slide of my blood, every printout, I took magnets to 3 computers just to make sure that no one could find out that he'd turned me... wrong."

"Loki is here for her. We can use that." Natasha said, sounding almost bored.

"Well, he's not really here. That was an illusion. I don't know how far away he was. I'm gonna assume his crazy alien magic doesn't work from Asgard, but... as soon as I touched him, he just... shimmered away." She stole another look at Clint.

"So, he's probably in New York, just not in the building." Stark nodded.

"He, uh, he has been watching me, though. He knew exactly who I called for help when I first saw him again. And he was pissed that I'd run to another man for help when I thought I was going insane. He-he probably even knows I'm here." She looked to Stark, then back to Clint.

"All right. So, Loki is watching her, knows her movements. What can we do with that?" Stark asked.

"We piss him off." Clint suggested.

"He thinks he owns her. Him physically taking her wasn't a show of power, it was a mark of possession. If he thinks another man is trying to steal what is his, he might actually show up to dissuade the thief." Natasha said.

"So, what? She needs to get laid? That's kinda insensitive, Romanoff." Tony quipped.

"I think he might be more insulted about her trying to form real attachments to another man. Not just physically. Her falling in love would mean that she wants to belong to someone else... so to speak."

"So, she needs romance?" Barton said, flirtingly.

Cassie looked over at Clint. She wanted to talk to him about what Loki had said, but more than that, she wanted him to stop being so charming.

"I'll do it." Steve spoke up from his spot near the door. Everyone turned to him in shock. He shifted a bit, uneasy under all that scrutiny. "Well, we're talking about someone taking her to dinner and having a nice conversation with her, trying to sell Loki a scenario where she's falling for her date. But we don't want to make her uncomfortable with any forwardness. I am known to be morally upright, which means a date with me would not require anything that might make her uncomfortable."

"I don't know, Cap. This is a complete 180 from what you were sayin' a couple minutes ago." Clint said. Cassie thought, for a second, that she heard jealousy in his voice, but she shrugged it off, mentally.

Steve turned, looking down at her, but still managing to catch her eyes. "I was rash. That's not usually how I am, you can ask around. That's not my style, ma'am. I was angry. I missed out on 70 years because of your father. I lost my best friend because of him. I'm sure you can understand how that might affect my rationality. I believe it would be best for me to enter this with you, but of course, it is ultimately up to you."

She nodded. "Okay."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cassie walked into her apartment with a large bottle of rum under her arm. She was expecting the worst date in the history of dates and she wanted to get drunk afterward. Her jaw clenched when she saw Clint sitting in her recliner.

"I really thought I'd be the one who got to take you out on Tony's dime."

"You shouldn't be here. How did you even... never mind."

"Why not?" He asked, leaning forward. "'Cause Loki doesn't want me here?"

"No, because I don't want you here."

"And why's that?"

She set her bottle down on her coffee table and squared off with him. "Were you ever going to tell me that you were the reason Loki picked me?"

Clint took a deep breath and hung his head. "I didn't have a choice. He asked me if I knew of any super-humans that he could use. I had read your file. You were the only one with potential who wasn't locked in the Fridge. I answered. Why do you think I watched the tapes after the battle?"

He stood and caught her eyes. "I wish I hadn't given him your information, Cassie."

She looked away. "Yeah, me, too."

Clint grabbed her face and gently turned her face toward him. "I am so sorry."

"I just wish you had told me before I... look, I don't know how to do this. The only guy I've ever had a thing for... wasn't like you. He wasn't flirty. He just kissed me one day and apologized. Then, we kissed again. It was easy. You probably don't even have any interest in me, except assuaging your guilt and you are a natural flirt-"

Clint chose to cut off her rambling with a kiss. "Oh. I'm sorry."

She smiled and blushed, deeply. "My date is gonna be pissed."

"Fuck 'im." He said, pulling her close to him. She pushed away from him.

"Clint, I really like you. you are attractive and charming. You've helped me get on the way to being a real person again and there is something downright erotic about archery, but... I have a date with my father's worst enemy in an hour and I need to get ready."

"I think we could sufficiently piss Loki off before Steve even makes it back to the Tower." He suggested, putting his hands on her hips.

"I don't know if you caught this, Clint, but I've only been with two guys. One of those was, like, the worst thing to ever happen to me. My ex was around for years before we even kissed. And we were together for months before he took me to bed. So, just... slow down."

"Yes, ma'am." Clint said, before kissing her forehead and heading out her door.


	4. Mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plan works... a little too well.

Cassie went through her closet of modest dresses and picked out her most modest one, a light brown 3/4 sleeve with a loose turtle neck. She lined her eyes with brown liquid liner and added a cream-colored eye shadow. Cassie added a wine-red lipstick to pop against the neutral color scheme. She felt she looked gorgeous in a classical way.

At exactly 7:30, a knock came to her door. She opened it for Steve, who was dressed in slacks and a light blue button-up shirt. He offered her a single red daisy, with a smile. "You look beautiful. Kinda reminds me of... girls from my day."

"Modesty works for both of us, then." She said, walking out and closing her door. She followed him to the elevator and Steve pressed 'L'.

"So, be honest, did you wait in the hall for a few minutes so you could knock exactly at the half hour?"

"No. I did wait in the elevator until 7:28, though." He admitted, with a chuckle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The look on his face when Bucky and I walked into camp with all those POWs behind us, it made the whole thing worth it."

"Wow. That is... great. I've heard that story 'cause my ex was a bit of a fan boy, but it's so much better from you."

"So, what about you?" Steve asked, taking a polite sip of his water and then setting it back onto the table. "Any interesting stories from your life?"

"No. I spent my 10 years in a HYDRA lab, then I spent my 10 years in a SHIELD lab. Then I spent 2 years in Cali, and 1 here. Never really made any waves or created any stories."

"What, no one has ever died in your labs? Well, the labs I've been in must be special." He said, laughing. "So, why don't you tell me about your SHIELD agent ex?" He asked, with a smile.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, this modesty of yours isn't an act. It isn't entirely something that Loki thrust upon you. You are naturally modest and shy. So, you wouldn't have been so forward as to be with someone unless you were absolutely comfortable with them. The comfort of years. The only people you were around long enough to build that kind of rapport with were SHIELD agents."

She blushed and looked at her lap. "You don't get enough credit for your brain, Steve."

"Behind the times doesn't mean stupid." 

Cassie took a deep breath and smiled. "I met him on the jet when Fury was taking me to the Fridge. He was taking some weapon to be locked up. He called me 'Jo' because Joanna is an old lady name. He gave me a blanket when it got cold. He was nice to me, when no one else really was. I didn't see him again for 5 years but he intervened on my behalf with Fury a few times. Ultimately, my stay in the Fridge was much nicer because of him. And once I'd learned how to read and write, Fury let us be pen pals."

"Pen pals? That takes me back."

"I wasn't allowed tech in my cell. Everything had to be on paper. Anyway, he got transferred from what he was doing, tracking down alien tech, to being in charge of several labs. That put him in charge of my yearly exams. So, we kept writing, but I got to see him a bit. After my year 17 exam, he started writing me more often... and it was different, you know, the tone. He didn't see me as a kid any more, I guess. He started coming by more often to see me and then, one day, he just kissed me."

"Fury must have been livid."

"Yeah. He ordered us not to see each other and set Maria Hill on a collision course with us. My ex kept writing, thought and when Fury finally let me out into the real world, he defied orders to come be with me."

"So, what happened? He's not around now."

She scoffed, derisively. "He found someone else. Someone closer to his age. A woman who knew more about the world than just what she'd read in books. I saw a picture of her... online. She's pretty gorgeous, but she's modest-looking, too. I could see how he could fall out of love with me, for her."

"You still love him, though?"

"First love never dies, does it? I'm sure you have a memory of a girl long gone who you can't ever have. Doesn't make you love her any less."

Steve nodded. "Well, maybe it's not too late. He might still realize his mistake."

"Not likely. He was in the facility when Loki came through the Tesseract." 

"I'm sorry."

"It's not like he was mine when he died."

"Doesn't make it hurt any less."

Cassie nodded.

"I think this is probably a pretty bad topic for a first date." Steve mused.

"Well, pardon my not knowing the etiquette."

"I don't know much more than you."

"Well, we seem to be doing all right."

"Yeah. We are."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steve walked her to her apartment, hands behind his back. Once they got to the door, they turned to each other.

"You know, I wasn't expecting much from tonight, but... I really enjoyed myself. You are a breath of fresh air in a world full of guys just trying to get laid. You are a total gentlemen, without the misogynistic undertones. The whole Mad Men thing." Cassie rolled her eyes at herself. "Point is, I had a lot of fun."

"Me too. I mean, I haven't had this much fun since the 40s."

This drew an honest laugh from the woman. "From anyone else, that would sound pathetic, but from you, I take that as a high compliment."

"It is, Cassie. One of the highest I am prepared to give. Maybe, we could do it again, sometime, for our benefit instead of Loki's."

"I would really like to, Steve..." She started, unsure of herself because she really wanted to but she wondered what that emotion meant when compared to the way she felt for Clint.

"Oh, it's fine either way." Steve said, covering himself from the rejection. That shy act made up her mind.

"That's the end of the sentence. I'd really love to, Steve."

Steve smiled, brightly, showing all those bright whites. "Well, let me know if you have any issues. I will be right upstairs with Tony, keeping an eye on your apartment."

"I'll make sure to change for bed in the bathroom, then."

He chuckled. "Well, have a nice night." Steve said, before leaning down to kiss her cheek.

She walked into her apartment, misty-eyed, with her hand over her cheek. "Just marching through the Avengers roster, aren't you? Who is next? Banner seems lonely and Romanoff seems up for anything."

She turned to her bathroom, her throat going dry, all the happiness draining out of her. Loki was sitting on the edge of her tub. She reached her hand into her purse, feeling for the orb. Loki moved his leg to show the sceptre leaning against her bathroom wall. "I wouldn't."

"How'd you know where the cameras are?"

"Your patriotic friend would never allow Stark to completely blanket this place in cameras."

"So, what? You have to know that I have other ways of alerting them to your presence."

"3 minutes. That's what it will take for Stark to put on his suit and come to your rescue. Rogers will have to wait on the lift. You will be mine again long before they make it here." Loki said, matter-of-factly. He stood, picking up the sceptre.

"Jarvis, door!" She shouted, running for the living room. Her front door swung open as she heard Loki moving behind her. She ran for the elevator, not deterred as a copy of Loki popped up in front of her. Unfortunately, her short legs and the 3 inch clogs she chose to go with her vintage dress proved to be too much of a hindrance and Loki quickly caught up with her, grabbing her wrist and spinning her around. He touched her chest with the sceptre and she stopped dead. 

"Your date will be exiting those doors in a moment, Joanna. We can't risk letting him get the better of you. You don't have his training. Yet. Let's make haste to the end of this hall." 

"Stark will be waiting outside those windows. If I may..." Loki nodded, proud of how quickly this strong-willed woman turned. She walked purposefully to the elevator. "Jarvis, stop the elevator car for me, but open these doors."

"Of course ma'am, but I will have to inform Mr. Stark of this occurrence."

"That's fine, Jarvis, thank you." She turned to Loki as the elevator doors opened to an empty shaft. "Stark gave me voice controls over the elevator. We should have time to get to the basement levels and out of the building through the sewer systems before he has Jarvis let Rogers out."

She reached a pale hand up to grab her collar, before pulling it off in a long strip. She then ripped it in half and wrapped the pieces around her hands. "Hold onto my shoulders, mi'lord."

Loki complied, an awkward configuration due to their height difference, but the formerly modest woman didn't seem to notice as she jumped to the elevator cables like a cat and started slowly sliding down them. Her clunky shoes caught most of the friction, a sickening smell of burning rubber and leather wafting up and making Loki's nose wrinkle.

As they reached the halfway point in their journey down, the sound of glass breaking above them hit their ears, right before the elevator began it's descent. Cassie let the pressure off of her feet and slid down the rest of the way. She led Loki into the sewers as she unwrapped her hands. As she threw her wraps to the ground, Loki noticed large burns across her palms, but she ignored them as she continued along her planned extraction route.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So, Loki wins. He's going to get his army, after all." Bruce shook his head, sadly.

"Not if we can get her back before she can replicate the serum. Which, being honest, she's likely to fail at." Tony reasoned.

"And how do we plan on that? He's possessed her again. She won't even want to be saved. She's working against us." Natasha seemed apathetic, but there was an edge to her voice.

"Not by choice. If I could manage to get Bucky to recognize me after HYDRA wiped his mind, maybe we could get Cassie to."

"What appeal to her humanity, her memories? We barely know this girl." Widow said.

"I think I got to know her pretty well last night. I think there is a lot in her that we could appeal to if we had the chance."

"We just need to bash her on the head real hard." Clint said, causing everyone to turn to him. He shrugged and looked back to the arrow in his hand. "It fixed me." 

"Have to find her first." Stark said.

"I might be able to provide assistance in the endeavour." A booming voice came from the doorway.

"A well-timed assist from the thunder God. How's Asgard?" Tony said, turning to the Asgardian.

"It is well. All realms are harmonious in the wake of Malekith's demise. Except Midgard, which seems to enjoy chaos."

"Well, no wonder your brother wants Midgard." Natasha mused.

"Yes. Loki died in my arms on Svartlefheim. But it must have been an illusion concocted in order to avoid being taken back to prison. I'm mortified that my gullibility has caused this pain. I promise we will get back your woman, Steven."

Clint kept his attention on sharpening his arrows tips as Steve blushed. "She's not my woman, Thor. We only went on one date."

"And he didn't get nearly as far with her as Barton did."

Clint calmly blew on the tip of an arrow. "Natasha, you petty bitch."

"I didn't know it was a secret. You did know you were on camera."

"That's why she hesitated." Steve muttered under her breath.

"This isn't important. What's important is that Loki has her." Everyone stared as Clint dropped his feet from the chair in front of him. "Look, I've known her for years longer than any of you. I've been flirting with her for weeks. She was not, at all, surprised when I kissed her. She liked it. She just didn't want me to stay."

"Wait!" Thor said, staring at the screen and completely ignoring the human drama behind him. "Reverse the flow of this image."

Tony hit a button on his tablet and rewound the video to the point where Cassie ripped the collar off her dress. "There. Stop." 

The Avengers squinted at the Asgardian runes clearly visible once she'd thrown modesty to the wind. "So, what's it say?"

"It is an antiquated Asgardian ritual, similar to your ring of engagement. The translation is approximately 'The bearer of the children of Loki, God of Lies'. This girl, is she special?"

"She's like me. Super strength, amazing reflexes, slightly accelerated cellular regeneration." Steve responded.

"Then she may survive."

"Survive what?" Banner asked.

"While Loki appears similar to you and I, that is just a bit of our mother's magic. He is by birth of Jotunheim, land of the Frost Giants."

"And I take it they aren't called giants ironically?" Stark already knew the answer.

"Not at all."

"Great, so now we have the time crunch of saving her before he re-consummates their marriage and puts a baby in her that's gonna destroy her insides." Clint said, exasperated.

"They'll be looking for a lab. She promised him an army, that'll take precedence." Widow reasoned.

"I've got an idea. It might take a bit of time. Hill, I'm going to need contact with Fury." Barton turned to Hill, who had been unnoticed standing in the back.

"Why?"

"Because SHIELD may be dead but Fury is not and I'm not disobeying a direct order without at least letting him know." 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the meeting, Natasha walked up to Steve, who was making a cup of coffee. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to make a spectacle about it. I just didn't want you getting hurt. She's the first one you've opened up to since they thawed you out."

"It's fine. I was a bit mad at first, but... Barton has been wearing her down for weeks. And she wasn't expecting to have a good time with me. It was supposed to be pretend so I understand her keeping her options open to his intentions. But she chose me, Natasha. Not in any permanent or especially important sense, but.. I asked her to go out with me again and she said 'yes', even after her event with Hawk. That means something."

"Maybe she wanted to have you both?" Natasha could tell from the smell that Steve had made the coffee 'Army strong'.

"That's not her style. She's shy, reserved, not a two-timer. She wanted to date me. She wanted respect, not someone aggressively trying to bed her."

"I just want you to remember that you have only been on one date with this girl. You barely know her."

"I will keep that in mind, Natasha."

**********************#%+%@!%&%@$=:

"All right, talked my plan through with Fury, he seemed convinced. We are gonna head to the Playground."

"Which is?" Banner asked.

"Top secret base in a location I can't tell you. It's got a lab with everything Cassie would need to analyse her blood. Loki will be watching us, we lead them there."

"Why would we lead them there?" Tony asked.

"Because there is a small group of SHIELD agents there, one of 'em is very important to her."

"Her ex? She said he died." There was a break in Steve's voice. He'd been lied to.

"He did. But this is SHIELD we're talking about. They brought him back with an experimental procedure based on alien tech. He's alive and mostly well. She sees him, remembers who she is, we fuck up Loki. Pretty simple."

"How do you know who her ex was?" Rogers asked, defensively.

"I've known her for years."

"You keep saying that, but she doesn't have friends, Clint. She didn't take any personal mementos from her apartment except a blanket and a photo album. She doesn't have people." Tony clarified.

"I said, I've known her for years, not that we've been friends. It was my job to know her, everything about her."

"She was a mission." Natasha wasn't asking.

"She was the daughter of Red Skull and she was fucking a high level SHIELD agent. Fury would've been an idiot to let her out into the world without surveillance."

"So your job was to follow a 20 year old girl and her boyfriend around?" Bruce seemed appalled.

"Just her. And only until she left him. Fury didn't feel she was worth the man power afterwards. He thought I was of better use on the Tesseract project." 

"She said he found someone else." Steve sighed.

"He did, but he wasn't going to dump her. He isn't the type to break hearts. She saw that he'd be happier with the other woman, so she got a transfer to New York while he was on a mission. Dear John note and all that. Now, can we focus? Playground base."

"Grab a go bag and suit up." Tony announced.

Widow walked up to Clint as he packed his bow and arrows of many different types. "So, did you decide that you wanted to get her in bed while you were spying on her for Fury or after?"

Clint didn't turn to the arrogant-sounding woman behind him. "I watched this woman for almost two years, Tasha. I know her. Probably better than she knows herself. I watched her learn to live in the real world for the first time. I watched her thrive. I saw her match wits with the men in Stark's labs and I saw them begin to love her. I watched her become better and better." He straightened and looked the Russian in the eye. "I watched her swell with excitement when she learned she had created life with the only man she'd ever loved. And I watched her decide not to tell him, not to use that child against him, so that he could be happy with someone else. I saw her take the three material things she gave a damn about and sandwich them between the few outfits she could fit in her suitcase and leave everything else. I watched her write that letter. I could recite it if I wanted to. She blamed herself 'cause she didn't want him to feel guilty. She is this amazing, intelligent, beautiful, selfless woman and I handed her to Loki."

The regret in his voice made Natasha falter. The petty feeling she'd been holding onto disappeared."You didn't have any control."

"I can use that for most things. I can write off the things I did in the past because I'm making up for them now. I can ignore the things I've done for SHIELD because the ends justify the means. I can forget the men I killed, the things I did under Loki's thrall because it wasn't really me, but not this. Not her." Clint shook his head. "There is no redemption on this. Loki took this perfect woman and broke her. This isn't about bedding her, Natasha. It's about fixing her."

"And if Steve is the tool to make those repairs?"

Clint looked down. "Then he is. Or Phil is. If it's not me, so be it. I just can't leave her undone."

Natasha nodded and Clint began to walk away. "And the baby?" He turned back, slinging the bag and his bow onto his back. 

"Loki couldn't have his woman carrying another man's child. Why do you think he was so rough?"


	5. Stay With Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A showdown at Playground Base.

The group flew out to Playground base in a Quinjet, Clint jumped out of the pilot seat and headed out first. Billy Koenig greeted him with a lanyard. "I ain't wearing your tracker. Where's Coulson?"

"You need to wear the lanyard, Agent Barton."  
     
"Fine." Clint said, snatching it out of his hand. "Where is he?"  
        
"I'm here. Fury said you were coming. He didn't say anything about the ship full of Avengers. What's going on?"  
      
"It's Loki. We need your help. And unfortunately that's going to entail some scrutiny into the fact that you're alive and also, your history with Cassie Campbell."  
     
"What? Wait, what does she have to do with this?"  
        
"It's complicated but boils down to Loki claiming her as his wife a year ago and coming back for her and the army she promised him while under his thrall. The main idea here is that she sees you and remembers who she is."  
     
A sound of footsteps coming down the ramp of the jet, made Clint, Coulson and Koenig turn to the Avenger's, led by Tony. "Hey... There... Agent. Can't think of anyone I'd rather have brought back to life by alien tech, but wanna enlighten us?"  
     
"Come on in, it's a long story."  
     
Everyone followed Coulson and Koenig to a lounge. Several young Agents stared at them from the sidelines. Clint gave a small wave to the stoic Asian woman in the corner. She nodded in response. Coulson set two six-packs on the table and grabbed one.      
     
"Loki killed me. I was dead for several days. Fury had our doctors bring me back using a drug derived from an alien physiology called GH325. I made a full recovery. Guess it wasn't that long." Coulson said before taking a drink.  
        
"And the girl?" Natasha asked, grabbing a beer for herself.  
     
"Don't call her a girl. She was a woman before I even put my hands on her. There is not much to talk about. Once I got her out of the Fridge, we were together for a couple years. Then she left me, went to New York."  
     
"So, do you think you'd be up to talking her down now that she's gone pod person?" Stark asked, shaking his head as Koenig offered him a beer.  
     
"Of course, but I don't know how well this is gonna work. Last time I talked to her... She seemed different."  
     
"For good reason. Loki all but ruined her." Banner blurted.  
        
"What did he do?" Phil knew it was something bad, based on her reaction to his questioning when he saw her.  
     
The Avengers looked between themselves, no one knowing how to word the tragedy. Natasha is the first to speak up, deciding on honesty. "When he took the Tower he enthralled her. She was violently raped and he carved her up with an Asgardian marriage proposal claiming her as his own. He also unlocked her DNA sequences in order to turn her into a super soldier like her father and beat her mercilessly to force an abortion of your child."  
    
"My what?"  
         
Clint elbowed Black Widow. "You shouldn't have found out like this. I'm sorry, Phil."  
         
"My... My child."  
     
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
     
Loki pointed to a spot on the map in front of him, laid out on the hood of a car she'd stolen for him. 

"Ist der Spielplatz. That's the Playground. It's the lab I was taken from. HYDRA lab turned SHIELD by Fury."  
        
"Can I trust that you have a good memory of the layout?"  
     
"Of course. And I know well the changes Fury would have made to get it up to his standards. I can even get us access. I just need to drop by my old apartment."  
     
"I knew you would not disappoint me." Loki grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her into a rough kiss.  
     
~~~~~¢¢¢<<<<<<<<<<<¢¢¢¢~~~~~~~~~  
     
Loki stood in the alley beside Cassie's old apartment, an illusion in place so that he appeared to be wearing jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. Cassie jumped up to the fire escape on the side of the building and climbed up to her floor. She jumped over to her bathroom window, holding the tiny ledge with the fingertips of her right hand as her left pushed the unlocked window open. She pulled herself in through the tiny window and dropped to the floor. She shook her head as she walked around her old apartment.   
     
"Is this what you're looking for?" Fury asked, holding up Coulson's old badge.  
         
"Nick Fury. How humbled I am to be haunted by the director of SHIELD. How'd you find that?"  
     
"I'm a spy. That's my job."  
     
"And the surveillance you've had on me since you let me out, that just helped, right?"  
        
"Right."  
     
"You get off on watching us, Nick? Is that your thing, peeping?"  
     
"I never watched you. I had agents for that."  
      
"But I'm sure you watched the highlights."  
     
"Highlights. Like one of my best agents recklessly knocking up a HYDRA legacy half his age? I caught those highlights."  
    
"That must've frustrated you, Director. How he let his emotions get the better of him, how he told me SHIELD secrets for years. You were just waiting for me to show my father's colour. And by the time I did, you were focusing on my new beau. While you were up in your helicarrier I was being turned into a villain in your periphery. You failed. Now... Give me that badge."  
     
"Why? So you can head to the Playground and try to recreate the super soldier serum? Real scientists have been trying to do that for 70 years."  
     
"The same real scientists who said I was genetically no different from you? Think I'll try my hand at it, if you don't mind. Now give me that badge."  
     
Nick Fury stood and shook his head. "I don't think so."  
      
"Nick, look at yourself. You're old. You've got poor depth perception. You pretty much died less than a month ago. Do you really want to pick a fight with a genetically modified 25 year old with perfect vision and a pretty extensive grudge? Know your limits."  
     
"You don't think I'm just going to hand this over to you, do you?"  
     
"I never took you for a stupid man, Director."  
      
"Loki did a number on you, didn't he?"  
     
"Any good king would."  
         
Fury threw the badge at her. She headed for the window, pausing at the windowsill. "You should have killed me when you stormed Der Spielplatz. When I was ten and wouldn't have been able to do anything to stop you. Then, none of this would have happened." She said, before jumping out window.  
     
Fury pulled out his phone. "Barton, she was here. She has the badge. This plan of yours might actually work. She came in all big headed and taunting, but before she left, she told me I should have killed her when she was ten and we could have avoided all of this."  
        
"Are you sure she wasn't just taunting you more?"  
     
"I know a woman's tone, Barton. That was regret, not sarcasm. Just get ready. She'll be heading for you."  
     
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\\\\\\\~~~~  
       
"What took so long?" Loki sounded a bit whiny.  
     
"It wasn't where I left it." She answered, before she handed him the badge. "If I know Fury, there will be a voice code. You can help with that."  
     
"This is Philip Coulson, Agent of SHIELD." Loki said in Coulson's voice.  
    
"Perfect. Now to catch a ride to Europe."  
        
"I can help with that, as well."  
     
~\\\\\~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
      
As Loki pulled into the Playground, in the jet they'd stolen from the Army, the Avengers suited up and positioned themselves, utilizing the SHIELD agents that weren't too scared to go against the Asgardian.  
       
"Is Cassie with you? Let me talk to her." Coulson called out from behind a barricade as Loki stepped forward.  
     
"Why would I bring her here, where every soul present wants to take her from me?"  
     
"Because you're an asshole." Hawk said at the same time Coulson shouted, "Because you're a narcissist."  
       
Coulson looked over at Clint, before continuing. "You can't resist rubbing it in our faces. How she won over Barton and Rogers, my history with her, even Stark, who promised to protect her and failed. You have to prove to us that she is yours and you want to revel in our reaction. So bring her out. Prove that she's not ours anymore."  
     
Loki nodded and Cassie walked forward. She was wearing a long, flowing dress, with a low neckline to show her scars. "Hello, Philip." Her eyes were dancing across the outlines of her old friends.  
        
"Cassie. Please. We can fix this. Just... Let us fix this."   
     
"There is nothing to fix."  
     
"Do you remember him? Do you remember what he did to you?"  
     
"He did what was necessary. What was needed."  
     
"How can you say that? How can you even think that? I understand you not telling me, Cass. That's the selfless woman you are. You didn't want me to be trapped in a relationship because of a child I didn't ask for when you knew I was in love with Audrey, but how can you say that was necessary? This isn't you, Cassie."  
     
"That's because I'm not Cassie. Cassie was weak and stupid, moulded by Judeo-Christian morals forced upon her by SHIELD because they were afraid of what would happen if she were to remember that she was an occultist, HYDRA princess. They turned her into a simpering fool, trying to make up for her father's mistakes by being a damn scientist. Well, now I'm going to be a queen, Philip, like I always should have been."  
    
"You aren't someone... You can't think... He beat you until you miscarried."  
        
"The beating was just to dislodge the child. He froze her out long before he ever laid a fist upon me." Her voice throughout the exchange wasn't emotionless, like they'd expected. But that phrase came out cold.  
    
"Cass..." Coulson's eyes went misty and sad.  
     
"We need this base, Phil. If you want to survive this altercation, you should pack up your people and leave." Joanna said, softly, looking at a small nerdy-looking guy just visible behind Thor.   
     
"What were you going to name her?" Barton shouted from behind his barricade.  
     
Joanna faltered... A short gasp left her lips. "What?"  
        
"The sonogram you carry around in your wallet. A high power scope shows it saying 'baby girl A'. What were you going to name her?"  
     
A moment passed before a quiet answer of, "Faye. Faye Phillipa Campbell-Coulson." A little pained sound came from her direction.   
     
Loki put a hand on her shoulder. "We are making more. You can name them whatever you wish."  
     
She smiled, the tenuous grasp on who she was supposed to be disappearing. She looked toward the Avengers before turning into Loki's arms and kissing him.   
        
"Brother! I have mourned you! Why must you dirty the one good deed of your life by coming here, stealing this woman, trying to reign over Midgard... again?"  
     
"You aren't my brother." Loki snapped, then he smiled cruelly. "The woman is mine. I claimed her. You came to Midgard and claimed a woman. Why am I not being afforded to same?" Loki asked, as Joanna hung around his neck.  
     
"I didn't need magic to make Jane love me."  
     
"I assure you that Joanna would stay with me, even if she were untouched."  
        
"Prove it, asshole." Stark said.  
     
Loki smirked and touched her heart with his sceptre. She dropped her arms from around his neck, then went pale and looked light-headed, but she stood by Loki.  
    
"Cassie?" The Avengers chorused.   
       
She nodded, but looked at her feet, never leaving Loki's side.   
      
"You can come over, Cassie. You are safe with us." Steve said.  
       
"I can't." She squeaked. " You would never let me keep it." She looked up, teary eyed. "I can't lose another one."  
      
It took them a second to all realize that Natasha had been wrong.  
    
"How small minded you must think me, to assume that I would make her promise of an army more important than my promise of a successor. We had plenty of time."  
        
"You can't even know that yet." Bruce yelled.  
     
Thor turned to him. "Jotuns are notoriously potent breeders. Before Odin put a stop to it, they were like... Rabbits."  
     
"This will kill you, Cassie. He's a frost giant. Superhuman or not, you can't survive a baby Andre coming out of you." Stark shouted, as Jarvis scanned her.  
      
"When the time comes, Loki will cut him out of me." She said, shakily.  
     
"Do you think he knows how to do that, Cass?" Bruce reasoned.  
    
"I imagine it's quite like stabbing someone through the back, but from the opposite side and not quite so violently." Loki teased.  
     
"And how, exactly, are you planning to care for a half Jotun child on Midgard?" Black Widow asked.  
     
"It will be fine. I will be with Loki. No one will question the king."  
  
"I question him. I downright ridicule him. And I question you. This is a bad idea." Stark said, Jarvis bringing up the scan that confirmed her pregnancy.  
      
"I can't lose another one." She repeated.  
      
"You are going to have to lose this one." Clint said bluntly. "That kid will kill you. If you want another shot at motherhood, you can have it, but not like this. Move over to this side of the barricade. You need to let us take care of you."

"What are you gonna do, force an abortion on me? Then you are no better than Loki, but at least he had reason."  
      
Clint set his bow aside and grabbed a single arrow from his quiver, palming the head. He grabbed the top of a storage box being used at a barricade and jumped over it, landing next to Cassie. He wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her deeply. "I know you will never forgive me, but remember... I'm so sorry."  
     
He then jabbed her in the stomach with the arrow, which began shocking her. He slung her over his shoulder and jumped back over as Tony and Thor covered him with a hammer and repulsor blasts.


	6. Runaway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings specific to this chapter (There are several so...)- Depression, sexual assault, rape, bad things in a church.

Cassie woke up in a bed in a medical room, Steve sitting beside her. She looked away from him, focusing on the beeping machine to her right. "You must think I'm crazy."  
     
Steve leaned forward. "No. Sad, lonely, but not crazy."  
     
She still didn't turn to him, it was easier to talk this way. "That baby, the first one, Faye, she was everything I ever wanted. She was the culmination of all the goals I set for myself while I was in the Fridge. Get out, get a job, get married, have a baby. My grand plan. Nothing ever goes to plan." She shifted and stared at the ceiling above her.  
      
"I was trying to figure out a way to tell him when Phil got back from his mission. He started telling me about this mission and this woman and every time he talked about her, his eyes would sparkle. I knew. But Phil, he would never admit it. He doesn't break hearts. I made the decision that day. I hid the test, never told him. I wrote him a letter, gave him an out. If he had called me, if he had tried, I would've come back... but he was happy to be done with us. Audrey was better for him. He stopped loving me and then, Fury messed with his memories. He barely remembers me."  
       
"He was here for 2 days, in this chair, until a young woman named Skye came to remind him he had an agency to run."  
     
"Because he wanted answers, not because he feels anything for me. Or maybe he feels guilty."  
      
"I don't think it's that simple. But I know that you need to talk to him."  
     
"He barely remembers me. I mean, the only difference is that he knows about Faye now."  
     
"Well, he's still in the facility, if you change your mind." Steve stood, patting her hand. "I'm glad you're okay, Miss Campbell. I'll let the others know you're awake."

 

As he walked out, she knew she'd lost him. This whole event had revealed too much of her, too soon, and now the Captain didn't want her. She couldn't even think about talking to Clint, right now, and talking to Phil was going to give her a stroke. She wondered if she was still at Playground base. She grabbed the corner of the hospital blanket and pulled it off of her. She looked down, in disdain, at the hospital gown they'd put her in. She shook her head as she gripped the I.V. and gently took it out of her arm. She reached over and unplugged the beeping machine before pulling off the sticky pads monitoring her heart rate.

 

Cassie ran the odds in her head. Phil seemed to only have a handful of agents with him, 5 or 6 by her count as Joanna, add that to the number of Avengers. 'It's a big facility' she thought as she looked both ways down a long hallway. 'I might be able to make it out without anyone noticing... in a hospital dress, in the mountains in Europe. Just to avoid drama? Am I really going to do this?'

 

She settled on 'yes' as she imagined dealing with Steve and Clint as an Avenger. She couldn't go back to New York. She probably couldn't go back to America, at all, for a while. She moved through the hall, her inner map leading her to the exit. She found a biometric panel on the wall near the door and she started to try to open the program to hack it, when the stoic Asian woman stepped out of the shadows to her right.

 

"Where, exactly, do you think you're going?"

"I don't know. Just... somewhere else." Cassie admitted.

"So eager to leave that you couldn't find clothes first? Most parts of this range are below 0°C. Think you can survive those temperatures in that outfit?"

"Steve survived being a popsicle. Similar genetic enhancement. I could survive the Alps in... basically nothing."        
     
"Are you running from the questions, or the blame?"

"All of the above. This whole event has blown my life to pieces. I can't go back to work at Stark Tower, I can't join up with SHIELD." She shook her head, not even wanting to think about the state of her love life. "Any chance I had at 'happy' or even 'okay' got nuked by Loki and... Joanna. If I were less of a coward, I'd just off myself to make sure my other side couldn't ever do damage like this again. Unfortunately, I'm not even sure I'd even know how to kill myself. So, I'm running. It worked for Banner for a few years. That should be enough time to clear my head."

"If I let you leave, how would you make sure that Loki wouldn't get his claws into you again? He made it out after Barton grabbed you."

"I'll go somewhere dark and secluded. He won't be able to find me if he doesn't have any landmarks to locate... while he's spying on me." She sniffed, trying to hold back tears. "I can't deal here, Agent May. Someone like you should understand the importance of dealing with shit in... in seclusion."

"You know who I am?"

"And I know I'm not getting out of here unless you let me. Please. I can't be here."

Melinda May looked at her for a moment before pressing her hand to the biometric lock. "Don't die. Phil would never forgive me."

Cassie nodded and bowed her head to the agent as she passed and went out the door. "Thank you, Agent May." She whispered.

  

******************

 

The cold hadn't bitten her as much as she'd thought it would. Her fingers had gone numb pretty quickly, but as she continued moving through the mountain range, barefoot and mostly nude, she saw no signs of hypothermia in herself. In fact, the only time her body temperature changed, at all, was when she stopped moving, and then it only dipped a few degrees until she started moving again. As much as she despised Loki, she supposed that she would have died, if she hadn't been modified.

 

There were several times that she had to drop to the snow and hide from the Quinjets looking for her, but even then, covered in a blanket of snow, she didn't lose enough body heat to matter. She didn't know how many days she was travelling through the mountains, but she was starving by the time she found the road. She knew better than to travel on the road, but she kept it in sight as she continued down the mountain she was on now. 

 

When she made it down the mountain, she found a small village. All the signage was in German, which she barely spoke and definitely didn't read. She grabbed a pair of sweats and a jumper off a line in the backyard of a small cottage and finally got rid of the hospital gown, before heading toward a small restaurant. She was greeted by a small blond woman whose crows feet seemed just at home on her face.

 

"Hallo. Spechen sie English?"

"Ja. Ein bisschen. A little. American?" She asked.

"Yeah. I... something happened. I don't have my passport. No money. I was left in the mountains... to die. I am so hungry. Can I work to get food?" She spoke slow and purposefully, fully enunciating everything.

"I ask." The woman said before walking into the kitchen. She walked back out with a smile. "You wash. You get 5€ an hour."

Cassie smiled. "Thank you so much."

  

**************************

 

Cassie worked under the table. She started as a dishwasher, where they didn't have to communicate much with her. She slept at a church, where they had an English-speaking priest and didn't ask too many questions. They provided her a cot and a few donated outfits. A jacket that she didn't need, but was oh, so comfortable. She learned she'd climbed down in Austria. As she learned more German, she was put in the kitchen, where she was given a raise to 7€ an hour.

 

She had a simple life, and it wasn't easy, but somehow she'd found happiness. No worries of the Avengers tracking her down, they'd have found her already if they were really looking. She was sure that SHIELD was too depleted to spend their time looking for her. The only thing she worried about incessantly was Loki.

 

Cassie woke up in the church. She rolled off the cot and folded her blanket, placing it gingerly at the end. She bent over and gave praise to God for allowing her to wake up as herself for one more day. She dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and pulled a plain black jumper over her head. Dark blue jeans and black leather boots rounded out her outfit. She exited her closet room, and greeted the priest with a smile.

 

"Guten Morgen, Vater. How was your night?"

"About so well as yours, Alex. I heard your crying, again." He responded, softly. They were the only two in the room, but he was quiet about it, like he was trying to soften the impact.

  

She'd chosen to call herself 'Alexandra Tristitia' because it was far from alliterative and nothing close to the name Loki wanted her to have. "I'm sorry I kept you from your sleep, Father. I'll try to keep it down." She said, sitting in front of a bowl of porridge and silently thanking God for it.

  

"That's not why I say it, Alex. You know, I do never ask. I promised not asking. But... you hold sadness. I can help to hold it with you."

 

She smiled, politely at the middle-aged German man. It was becoming more frequent that Father Nathan asked her to confide in him. She couldn't blow him off, completely, but he usually backed off after she politely declined talking about it. "God helps me hold it, Father. I can't bring you into it, as well."

 

"I want to help you, Alex. Please, allow me to help." The priest sat next to her at the little wooden table and put a hand on her upper thigh.

 

Cassie looked down at his hand. She could count the number of times the priest had touched her on one hand. In the 2 months since she came into the church seeking refuge, he had never touched her anywhere but her forehead and her arms. This contact was sudden, and uncomfortable. She shook the discomfort away, as the man had been nothing but polite and proper with her. She took a mouthful of porridge and swallowed it down, eagerly, before standing and bowing her head at the priest. "I have to head to work, Father. Thank you for the breakfast. I will... think about sharing my burden with you."  
   
The priest nodded and grabbed his own bowl.

 

Cassie shrugged it off and headed off to the restaurant.

 

********************

 

As Cassie was grilling up some peppers and onions next to a couple bratwursts, she heard the door open. She'd gotten into the habit of looking to see the size of groups to see how much of an order was about to come through to her. Her heart stopped, then began again at a hammering pace, before slowing to a crawl. Clint Barton was being sat at a table near the door. He was dressed in civvies, but her eyes fell on several places where weapons were hidden. She ducked out of view and took a deep breath. 'Kitchen door, back door, church, Vienna.' She thought, taking her apron off.

 

She quickly opened the kitchen door as Helga took Barton's order (in perfect German) and dashed out the back door, running through the alleys the half mile to the church. She ran in and made her way straight to her closet room. Father Nathan walked in as she was dumping all of her clothes into a backpack. She grabbed a jar with a handful of bills and several coins and shoved it on top of the clothes, before zipping up the bag. She turned to the priest and gave a weak smile.

 

"You are leaving?" He asked, closing the door behind him.

She sighed and nodded. "It's time, Father. I want to thank you for all your help."

He stepped toward her. "I hope I haven't done anything to offend you, Alexandra."

She shook her head. She couldn't explain why she had to leave to the man, but she wanted him to know it wasn't him. "No. Not at all, Father. It's... it's a continuation of what brought me here. I just... have to move on and it has to be now." She said, pulling the backpack on over her jacket and smiling at him.

"You can't leave yet." He said, stepping right in front of her. "You haven't repaid my kindness."

"What are you-" She started, before he pushed her backwards onto the cot. Her arms got tangled in the bag as the priest came down on top of her. He grabbed the waist band of her jeans and pulled them down, violently. Cassie kicked her booted feet at him. "Stop! No!"

The priest's fingers found their way between her legs and began to rub vigorously at her clit. He pulled her pants to her ankles and positioned himself between her knees, his mouth immediately attacking her bundle of nerves with quick flicks of his tongue. "This is not okay!" She shouted, squirming against his suddenly invading fingers.

"A woman like you... you will like it. I promise." He said, before straightening and undoing his black pants.

Cassie took that opportunity to kick him in the chest. He didn't move at all from the force. Instead, he grabbed her legs and pushed them up into her chest. He entered her quickly, using his weight to keep her arms pressed under her back and her legs pushing into her chest. He weighed more than she thought he should.

She closed her eyes, shutting down the thought processes that led down the roads of self-pity and shock. She chose the thought process of preservation, remembering the SHIELD Agent at the restaurant, knowing she had to be gone before Clint found the church. She sat herself up just a few centimetres using her core, then pushed hard against her bag's straps. As they ripped, she pushed her legs against the man of God with all of her super strength. This time, with her holding nothing back, he flew backward.

Cassie jumped up, pulling her jeans to her waist and grabbing her backpack by a broken strap. As she ran out past the man who'd been so nice to her, she genuflected with her free hand. "God save you."

 

She made it out of the church and about 5 ft before Clint jumped down from a ledge on the building next to her. She let out an exasperated breath. She closed her eyes and dropped her bag, putting her hands up.

"I know you don't want to talk, Cassie. Solitude to deal with shit, I get it. There's a farm back home that I go to when I have to deal with... the shit of being Ops. You have to come back. We've got reports of Loki heading this way. It's the only way we pinpointed your location in Austria. He's coming for you." Clint said, taking a step toward her. "Now, he's lost his sceptre, HYDRA's got it. He can't... turn you back, but he could do other things. We don't know the extent of what Loki can do."

She looked from Clint to the church, thinking of the uncharacteristically violent priest inside. "Shit!" She said, bending over to grab her backpack.

"What?"

"He got here first." She replied, running for the main street. "Tell me you have extraction."

He was keeping pace with her, but she could tell he was pushing his limits. He pointed to the edge of town. "Right off the main, outside the city, there's a jet. Come on."

As soon as she got on the jet, she dropped her bag and got in a jump seat. She felt drops hit her hand but she ignored them. She couldn't acknowledge the tears, or she wouldn't be able to stop. "How do I know that this isn't another of his illusions?"

"Because Loki wouldn't let you be saved by us." Natasha's voice came from the cockpit.

Cassie nodded. That made sense. He had been offended by them trying to 'save' her, before.

She pulled out a raggy t-shirt and wiped her entire face, as though she'd worked up a sweat. Her face didn't remain dry for long and she realized she was crying a lot more than she originally thought. "So... I know the Fridge was blown up last year, so are you taking me to Playground? I know there are cells there." Her voice was even, reserved. Had she not known she was crying, her voice would never betray it.

"You think we risked our asses to get you away from Loki, just so that you can rot in a cell?" Clint asked.

She looked over at him, surprise written on her tear-drenched face. "Tony, we've picked up the Red Queen. We are on the return." Natasha said into her headset.

"Red Queen?"

"Any complaints on that need to be directed to Banner. He coined the name." Clint said, reaching into a compartment beside him and tossing her a blanket. "Get some sleep. We've got a long trip."


	7. Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome home, Red Queen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please excuse the German. It's Google translate.

Cassie's dreams hadn't been what would be called 'pleasant' in a couple years, but her nightmares had steadily become more distressing. When she woke, she took a deep breath to steady her heart rate. She rubbed at her eyes with the blanket and folded it, throwing it next to her jump seat.

"You okay?" Clint asked, from the pilot's seat. Natasha had traded for the seat beside him.

"I'm fine." Cassie said, standing to walk up between the two agents.

"Well, maybe this will cheer you up. Welcome home." Clint said, reaching over to flip several switches on the jet's console.

Cassie looked out at the New York skyline. Twinkling lights and skyscrapers greeted her as she looked out the front of the jet. Right in the middle of the picturesque landscape stood Stark Tower, the visual confirmation of Tony Stark's ego. The building where Loki Laufeyson had turned her into a monster... twice. 'Home' was not the word she would use.

As they walked into the top of the Tower, Steve walked out a door to their immediate left. "Romanoff, Barton, mission debrief."

The agents split off from her without a word. Cassie looked around, seeming a bit lost. "Lab tech!" She heard from her right. "Come talk to me."

Cassie nodded and headed over to Tony. He shut the door behind her and headed to a bar next to his desk. He poured 2 glasses of scotch and set one on the opposite edge of his desk. He sat down and took a sip. "How was Austria?"

She looked down at the glass. "It was good. Nice." She took a sip. It was smooth and strong. Much better than the home-made vodka she'd been downing every night to help her sleep. "All I had to worry about was bratwurst and God."

"Well, that sounds... more boring than listening to Cap extol on the virtues of the 'good ol' days'."

"Well, it might not be saving the world, but I wasn't putting it in danger, either. And it was quiet. I thought it might help me to... deal." She whispered the last word.

"Yeah. Everybody has their coping methods. Me, I drink a lot." Tony said, lifting his glass. "Or, I make metal suits. Hawk shoots stuff, Romanoff kills things. You and Banner seem to be fans of the 'disappear into the middle of nowhere and get a taste of the simple life' method. Whatever. Diff'rint strokes. But what's important is you come back when you're needed. And here you are."

"I hope it doesn't diminish anything that I tried to run when... Barton showed up." She didn't feel quite up to 'first-naming' Hawkeye, yet.

"Not at all. Figured you would. Look, you're here and in not a whole lot worse condition than when you left. I had Pepper put you on a leave of absence when Loki grabbed you, so, you have a job downstairs, if you want it. And you're still what Fury calls 'enhanced', so you have a job up here."

"I don't know. I mean... I haven't even considered coming back to the lab."

"You've got time to think about it, but I'd really like you on the team when we go searching for the sceptre. It's like an epic quest. It'll be fun."

"Maybe."

"Well, either way, why don't you head over to the lab, let Banner scan you? I'd like to make sure Austria didn't fuck you up."

Cassie nodded, finishing off her scotch and standing.

**********

She opened the sliding door to the lab and smiled, timidly. Banner wasn't a man she'd spoken with much before, but he seemed to be the only one who didn't have judgement in his eyes when he looked at her.

"Oh, hello. Welcome back. Why don't you get a seat?" Bruce said, adjusting his glasses and tapping away at a tablet.

She jumped up on the exam table and looked around at all the equipment. "So, 'Red Queen', huh?"

"Well, it's just something I was tossing around. Everyone's got a superhero name, you know. The big guy's 'The Hulk', Tony is Iron Man. Hawkeye, Black Widow, Captain America. I thought you should have one, too."

"Well, I like it. It's better than 'Red Skulletta'." She said, with a small smile. Bruce just continued looking down at his tablet. "That was a joke."

She leaned forward. "Maybe I should try it in German. They got a kick out of me back in Hohenhems."

Bruce looked up from his tablet and gave a little smile as he took off his glasses. "Sorry. I get lost in the science sometimes. How was Hohenhems?"

Cassie smiled. "It was quiet. The people were really nice, worked with me, helped me learn German. It was simple. I was... almost happy there. Working on happy, anyway. Until Loki found me, again. That always puts an end to 'happy'."

Bruce scanned her from head to toe. "Well, at least you're here now."

"Yeah." Everyone seemed to think that was a good thing. Who was she to argue?

"Let me just get some blood and you can head down to your apartment."

Anxiety flooded her at the mention of her apartment. "Or, judging by that spike in your blood pressure, you might want to find one of Tony's couches to crash on."

She smiled, embarrassed. "Speaking of crashing, you got anything that would help me sleep?"

"Yeah. I have a couple sedatives around. Insomnia?" He asked, straightening her arm and wrapping a rubber band around her bicep.

"No... uh, nightmares." She whispered, as he gently pushed a needle into her vein.

Bruce nodded. He pulled out the vial of blood and labelled it, before walking over to a cabinet and grabbing a bottle. "This is Lorazapam. Take one about half an hour before you try to sleep. It'll relax you and your mind won't be so anxious. It should work on the nightmares better than Tony's scotch would."

She felt her cheeks heat up at that. How'd he know she was planning to steal her boss' amazing scotch? She jumped down and grabbed the bottle from his hand. She smiled and thanked him. She had her hand on the door when Banner turned his back to her. "Scrutiny sucks." He said. The words sounded awkward from the quiet scientist.

Cassie turned back, pushing the pill bottle into her pocket. Bruce took off his glasses, setting them on the table next to him. "I mean... it's no one else's business what happened between you and Coulson. No one's business why you left that base in the Alps. But they will be watching, judging, because that's... human nature."

"I left because I wanted to try to outrun the scrutiny. Guess that was wishful thinking."

"Well... I... I'm not the judging type. The other guy has done some horrible things, so I don't judge. If you need an ear... I'm in this lab, most of the time."

Cassie smiled a little, stepping forward, then jumping back onto the exam table, leaning back on it. "Can I hang in here, with you, for a little while, then? I don't want to deal with Steve's cold looks, or the weirdness with Barton. Eventually, we're going to get a call from Phil, and I'll have those questions to answer. I'll take a judgement-free zone where I can get it."

"Why don't you have one of those Lorazapams, take a nap?"

She took the pills out of her pocket and placed ten on her tongue. She took a deep breath and rolled over on her side, curling her arm under her head and closing her eyes.

********************

Cassie had read somewhere that dreams of running for your life, being hunted by something that you can instinctively tell is faster than you, were normal. She'd never been able to find anything about being the one on the hunter side. Her dream-self cornered it's prey and pulled them to her. "Hail Hydra." She whispered in her prey's ear as she brought a knife to their neck. "Sie werden nie dein schicksal besiegen ." She whispered, before violently pulling the knife across her victim's throat. As the body fell to the concrete beneath her dream self, Cassie could see her own face on the victim.

Her eyes flew open, her whole body tense. "Sie werden nie dein schicksal besiegen ." She whispered, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. She looked around and saw Tony and Bruce, standing outside the lab doors, looking at a tablet. She looked at her watch. She'd gotten 6 hours. She hadn't gotten that much sleep in one go since she left the Playground. "Thank you, Ativan." She said, grabbing the bottle from the table next to the exam table and jumping down. She opened the lab door and smiled at the scientists.

"How'd you sleep?" Bruce asked.

"Better than I have in months, actually. Made it past hour 4, so..." Cassie cleared her throat. "Um, Tony... sir. I'm in a good... well, a rested mindset, so I wanted to tell you that I'm going to respectfully decline going back to work in the lab."

Tony shrugged. "No biggie. I'm sure we can-"

"I'd like to focus on Ops training. I'm excited to make sure Loki never lays hands on that scepter again. I'd like to go on that quest. But being strong and fast won't do me any good if I can't fight. And if I can't fight, then I'm useless here."

The men exchanged a look. "Okay. I'll tell Romanoff you need some ass-kicking lessons." Tony responded.

"Don't bother. I'll talk to Barton. That conversation's gotta happen sometime. Better now, when I've had an almost full round of sleep." She said, before walking away.

She found him, with the help of Jarvis, several levels below the penthouse in a large open room with dozens of targets. "Stark made a shooting range?  How thoughtful." Cassie said, walking in behind him.

"There's also some foam mats in a closet somewhere, in case Tash gets the urge to kick my ass." He said, throwing the knife that sat balanced on his fingers into a target behind him.

"Got a minute?"

He nodded and grabbed two folding chairs from the wall next to the door. She sat in one, turning it so that her chest was leaning on the back rest. "I was deluded, back at der... the Playground. To think I could carry a Jotun baby... it would have killed me. You saved me from myself. And I hated you for it."

She rested her chin on her hands, on the backrest of the chair. "I understand now. I can't win against destiny. Can't run or hide. I was created to be a super-soldier. I wasn't created to be a scientist or a mother. So, I may as well fulfill that."

"I thought you weren't Ops material?"

"Well, I must be. Joanna was pretty good at all that stuff. Sliding down elevator cables, jumping from fire escapes to windows... I did that stuff. Somewhere in me is the fortitude for Ops training. So, I'm coming to you, the one person who has known me longer than anyone except Phil and Fury. Teach me Ops."

Clint looked down. "Who told you?"

"I must've known. Realized I'd seen you trailing me. Joanna knew. Fury confirmed it for her...me... and then you admitted to watching me with a high power scope. Pretty easy there. I don't mind, well, I do, but... I'm Red Skull's daughter. Phil was a level 8 agent. Fury had to keep his eye out."

He sighed. "I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you. I just... didn't know how."

"It's fine, Clint. It's good to have someone who knows me... because I don't think I know myself right now." Her eyes stung as she said the words.

Clint stood, before dropping to his knees next to her. "Cassie, you don't know who you are? I do. You are a scientist. You matched wits with some of the brightest minds in Stark Industries. You are a wonderful, intelligent, selfless woman who has faced so much in the last 2 years. To come out alive... I'm amazed by you. I've been amazed by you from the moment Fury put me on you." He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to look at him.

"I thought it'd be boring. I thought I'd just have to wait a week or so to get evidence of you meeting with HYDRA operatives or using Coulson somehow. What I saw was beauty. I saw confidence. I saw a woman deeply in love with a man who was never really around to return that love. I remember Phil going on a mission once, and you sat around sewing the holes in his suits, while studying tissue histology in a microscope. You never made friends, because Phil was all you cared about. You based your entire life around a man who was gone for weeks at a time. You got your school work done in between making sure everything was perfect every day, just in case Coulson came home. And the day he came home, and wouldn't shut up about that cellist he saved... I remember your face when you decided to leave everything you had behind and embark on a life by yourself with his kid, so that he could be happy. You didn't even cry, because you were fine letting him be happy. That is you. Selfless, loyal, never thinking about yourself."

She couldn't deny the tears rolling down her cheek this time. "I don't feel like that woman anymore. I lost everything. I lost Phil. I lost Faye. I lost my humanity, my optimism. I lost my second chance at being happy. Loki killed me. So, who am I now, Clint?"  
   
"You are the same woman. You're just a little beaten down, right now." Clint said, taking her hands.

Cassie laughed, sarcastically. She wiped at her tears with their hands. "Beaten down was miles back. I'm broken down. I don't sleep. I can't think. I couldn't even tell that Loki had replaced Father Nathan back at the church. That's why Hohenhems was so good to me, nothing required effort. Warm up some sausage, put it on a plate, go back to church and pray for the will to end it all, cry myself to sleep, wake up in cold sweats and do it all over again."

She stood, pulling her hands away and stepping away from him. "I thought I could do this. I thought I could come back and answer all the questions and it could go back to how it was before. But I can't. I'm not... I can't do this." She said, before running out the door.

********************

Cassie sat in the dive bar Clint had taken her to all those months ago, her glass half-full of a 151 white rum. She'd already downed 3 and she was happily starting to feel drunk.

"So, what's a beautiful woman, like you, doing drinking hard liquor in a dive bar?" A man asked, sitting next to her.

"Move on." She said, downing the rest of her drink and raising her hand for another.

"What's that?"

"I said, 'Move on'." She raised her head and turned slightly to the attractive dark-haired man beside her. "I'm a beautiful woman drinking hard liquor in a dive bar. Don't you think that probably translates into trouble?"

"What if I'm a guy who likes trouble?"

"Mein Gott, werfen sie einen hinweis. I don't know how to simplify this for you. I want to be left alone. Move on."

"Es tut mir leid. Ich dachte, vielleicht haben sie eine schwester waren. Heil Hydra." He said, before standing.

She put her hand out and grabbed his wrist. "Heil Hydra?" She whispered, before turning to him. "What would make you say that? Looking at me from across the bar, you think I'm one of you?"

"I... thought maybe you were..." The man looked confused. "There was a legacy we lost. You look just like..."

"Your legacy is dead!" She whispered, furiously. "There is no heir. There should be no Hydra." She stood from her stool and wrapped her left hand around his throat.

"All you pretty young American boys pulled so effortlessly into the jaws of Nazism and you don't even recognise it." She tightened her fingers' grip around his throat. "You, though... you recognise me. You were SHIELD. Must've seen my file."

"Fury never put it on the books that you'd been let out of the Fridge. Whitehall was very interested in getting you back. John Garret and I searched for an hour, in the middle of what was practically a war zone, in order to get you back where you belong."

Cassie smiled and let her hand go from around his neck, stepping toward the door. "Everyone seems to think they know where I should be. I don't belong with Hydra. They might have created me, but they lost ownership years ago. If you want to pick up the shambles of your organization, don't look at me." She said, before walking out the door.  
         
She walked in silence to the subway and sat down in the far back corner of the car. It was quiet. Until the doors opened at the next station and several people got on. They all took places around the car, some standing, some sitting. Cassie could see a pattern to their placement. Someone had planned the movements so that she was in the middle and no one was in the others' crossbeams. The person standing closest to her had done a good job of hiding the gun strapped to the inside of her thigh, but a knife was sticking out of the back of her jogging suit.

No one moved as the subway started toward the next station. "I take it, you guys wouldn't be inclined to let me off at the next station?" She asked. No one even looked at her. She nodded, then shook her head.

When the next station came, the doors opened to reveal a tall blonde woman in all black. "Joanna Schmidt?"

"Wrong chick. I'm Cassandra Campbell. You are?" She asked, looking up boredly at the blonde woman.

The blonde smiled brightly and held out her hand. "Bobbi Morse, Agent of SHIELD. Director Coulson sent us to retrieve you. We weren't sure you were, you know, yourself, hence the manpower."

Cassie took the hand and stood, shaking it. "You're Mockingbird." She said, looking the beautiful woman in the face.

"I haven't been called that codename in a while. How'd you hear that name?"

"There wasn't much to do in Austria so, I went through some of the SHIELD files Black Widow dumped to the web. Looking up stuff on the AVENGERS INITIATIVE. I followed a link from Cli- Agent Barton's file to yours..."

"Ah, ex-husband #1. That was a... crazy thing. Come on, let's get you to the director."

Cassie followed the woman out of the station, to the SUV waiting on the street above. They sat next to each other in silence for a while before Bobbi cleared her throat. "Clint's a good guy. It just... didn't work."

"Nothing ever does, Agent Morse."

*******************

Cassie walked into the compound and was led through the hallways by Bobbi and several agents. She could see agents she recognised from Joanna's attack on the Playground staring at her from their offices and labs. Bobbi opened a large wooden door and led her in. Phil stood behind a large wooden desk.

"We're okay, Bobbi. Thank you." He said, sitting down. Bobbi nodded and vacated the room. Phil looked up at Cassie, standing in front of his desk. "You left before I could talk to you."

"Yeah, well, you had an agency to... that's a lie." She cut herself off, sitting down. "I ran because I didn't want to deal with it." She sighed, sadly.

"You were never supposed to know about Faye. You weren't gonna be on her birth certificate, I was never going to ask you for anything. As soon as I made the decision to leave, she stopped being ours. She was mine. Only mine. And then she wasn't." She didn't look at her ex, staring at the ground in front of her. "I went a little nuts after. Losing her, becoming this, everything that Loki did. It took a while to be okay, but eventually I dealt with it. I was fine. I was sleeping, no one knew what he had done. I was okay."

Cassie put her head in her hands, her voice breaking. "I'm not okay, now. I left, chased simplicity, tried to find fine again, but I can't. I can't be okay, not after everything. I ran so that no one would see me fall apart, but I can't help it now. Everyone knows how fucked I am, and I have no way to hide this time."  
         
Phil stood, rounding his desk to kneel in front of her. "You don't have to be okay. No one is expecting that. And you weren't really okay before. I just couldn't remember well enough to put my finger on what was wrong. You can't find fine and you can't fall into it. You need support, guidance. You need to talk about it."

He took her hand in one of his. "If you don't want to talk to me, that's fine. But you have to talk to someone. Do you remember me telling you about Andrew, May's ex-husband? He's an amazing psychologist and he's well versed in dealing with the Index."

"Oh, my god. I'm on the Index, now, aren't I?" She whispered.

He nodded. "I put you on, myself. Listen, the Index isn't bad, Cassie. Remember, the Avengers came from that list."

"Yeah. I'm on their list, too."  
     
"You didn't expect Tony Stark to back off, did you?"

"Well, Rogers did. Steve backed off all the way to calling me 'Miss Campbell."

"Yeah... sorry about that. I, uh, know you were looking forward to a second date with my hero."

She shrugged. "It wasn't something I wanted, Phil, until it suddenly was. I mean, you know him... he's a great man. And don't worry, he's cold shouldered me enough that I got the hint."

"I'm not worried. I don't have a right to be. I pushed you away. But if there was anyone I'd want you to... get over me with... Not him, come on!" He whined.

Cassie smiled. "Okay. So, Andrew."


	8. Epiphany

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A trip to the doctor.

Cassie sat in a plush recliner, looking at the handsome black man on the other side of the desk. She didn't know what to say. "Thanks for seeing me." She settled on. "I know it's short notice, but there's a lot going on and I don't know when else I'd be able to see you."

"It's not a problem, Miss Campbell." Andrew set a folder on his desk. "I've read your file. I know everything that's been written about you, Cassie. Can I call you 'Cassie'?"  
  
"I prefer it."

"You don't have to hold back anything with me, Cassie. You understand? So why don't you tell me why you're here?"

"I can't sleep. I can't think, most of the time. I'm afraid, all of the time. I have horrible dreams... and I have some identity issues."

"Okay. So, what do you think is the cause of the problems? Why do you think you're here?"

"Where do I start?"

"The beginning is usually a good place. Tell me about your childhood."

"You read the file. You know my childhood. It was unorthodox, but not unhappy. My childhood was not a problem, never has been."

"You grew up in a cell." Andrew countered.

"It was a big cell. And don't most teenagers lock themselves in their rooms, anyway?"

"Yeah. By choice, not force. But, if you don't think that was the start of the problem, where do you think we should start?"

Cassie looked at her hands, clenched together in her lap. "I wanna blame the cellist. I've always wanted to blame the cellist. It'd be easier to blame all my problems on her. But it started with Phil. He taught me what happy was, then he took it away."

"Your file says that you left him. Why do you blame him for your leaving?"

Cassie looked down. "I was pregnant. He was in love with someone else. He would have stayed because I was pregnant. I couldn't let him stay with me when he was in love with Audrey. What kind of... what kind of woman would that make me?"

"So, you left him?"

Cassie nodded. "It killed me, to leave him. He was everything to me. So, when I left, his daughter became everything to me."

"And how did it feel to lose her, too?"

"A lot happened that day. A lot of horrible, horrible... life-destroying things happened to me. It, uh, it didn't quite hit me, at first. At first, I was focused on... the mutation and the scars. It wasn't until a couple days later. I couldn't stop crying. I lay in the bathtub and sobbed. I lost myself and my world, all at the same time. I considered committing suicide, but... I'm a coward. I couldn't go through with it."

"So, you considered taking your life?"

"What point did my life have after that? I'm... worthless. I felt worthless. But I couldn't do it. So, I drank and I worked and I... faked it, 'til I kinda made it." She wiped under her eyes to catch the tears that wanted to fall. "I kept going. I stopped looking in the mirror, I threw out all of the baby clothes, the tiny socks... I crawled into a bottle. I stopped feeling. I worked, and I drank, and I slept. Not much of that last one, but I... I did sleep back then."

"You don't sleep, now?"

Cassie shook her head. "Nightmares."

"What kind of nightmares do you have?"

"It's the same every night. Even when it's different, it's the same, ya know?"

"I don't think I do know."

Cassie sighed. "Sometimes, I'm running. Sometimes, I'm fighting. Sometimes, I'm not myself. Sometimes, I'm red. But no matter what is happening, no matter what I'm doing, who I'm killing, it always ends with Sie werden nie dein schicksal besiegen'."

"And what does that mean?"

"'You'll never defeat your destiny.' I'm... my subconscious mind is determined to remind me, nightly, that I am destined to be Joanna Schmidt."

"Well, why don't you tell me about Joanna? Loki hypnotized you and called you 'Joanna'?"

"Fury called me Joanna before anyone else. But, yeah, Loki told me to follow my destiny and I became Joanna. I became a villain, just like my father."

"You were a villain? What did Joanna do that was so evil?"

Cassie was taken aback. "What?"

"You said Joanna was a villain. I've reviewed files of numerous 'villains', I've spoken to many sociopaths on the Index who are ripe for becoming 'villains', I did an in-depth interview with Ivan Vanko. That's Whiplash. So, I know villains. What did Joanna do? What did you do as Joanna that was so bad? Did you kill anyone? Blow anything up? Attempt to overthrow world democracy?"

"I... tried to help Loki become King of... of Midgard."

"Because he told you to. Not because Joanna actually wanted to, right?"

Cassie looked down. "I... I don't know."

"She kill anyone?"

"No." Cassie said, the words coming out defensively.

"A villain would have. Did she have the opportunity?"

Cassie felt confused. Joanna had been given the opportunity to kill several people, including the man who had imprisoned her at a young age and taken the memories of her love away from Phil. She just nodded, dumbly.

"So, here's what I think, Cassie. You and Joanna, same person. She didn't kill anyone because you are a good person. You are a good woman, despite your genetics, despite your solitary upbringing, despite the tragedy that has befallen you. You're afraid that you might become your father, but I don't see any of him in you. Even when you've been hypnotized by a destructive, God of Chaos, you are still fundamentally good. So, maybe your destiny is something different. Maybe you're destined to do good, not evil. Maybe that's what your dreams are telling you."

Cassie was silent as she went over every dream she'd had, and every interaction Joanna had. "She told Phil to give up the base. I didn't want anyone to get hurt. I didn't want to hurt anyone. My Lord, she is me. She's just... less inhibited. Not evil. Not Red Skull. Ich bin nicht böse."

Andrew watched tears roll down her cheeks. "Feel better?"

She nodded, furiously. "I'm not evil. Even Joanna isn't. I feel amazing. Thank you."

"This isn't the end, you know. I mean, it's a breakthrough, but we haven't covered everything."

She nodded. "I know. I just... this completely changes how I look at... everything."

"So... what about the scars?"

"They seem so much less important now. They're... when Loki took Barton's mind, he told Loki about me. Barton had been in charge of watching me when I was first released from the Fridge, so he knew all about me. So, when Loki took Stark Tower, he went searching for me. Loki wanted me to be his queen. He wanted me to have his children and wanted me to use my blood to make him an army of super-soldiers. He turned me... he put me into a trance. Then, he... froze my womb. She died pretty quickly, I think. Then, he raped me, and carved his name into my chest. He wrote 'mine' in English, then he wrote what amounts to a marriage proposal in scars on my chest."

"That was last year. He came for you, again, a few months ago, right?"

She nodded and sighed. "That's when I was Joanna. He showed up at my apartment. I thought he was dead, but it was all a lie. He does that. That's what he is, God of Lies. Illusions, that's his big thing. He appeared in my apartment after I met Barton the first time. He was there as an illusion. Probably was outside on the street or something, but it seemed like he was in my room, scolding me for meeting with another man when I belonged to him. I did what I could to avoid him. I told my story to Tony Stark, who moved me into the Tower for protection. But it didn't help. He found his way into my apartment for real and touched me with that staff again. I was Joanna for weeks. I remember now, that I steered Loki away from conflict wherever I could. There would've been a fight at the Tower between Loki, Steve Rogers and Tony. I kept that from happening."

"There's a medical report in your file referencing a second pregnancy. That happen around that time?"

"Yeah. Joanna and Loki had sex several times."

"I notice you depersonalized that. You didn't have sex with Loki, Joanna did. But you've already acquiesced that you're the same person."

"I... can't own that one, Doctor. I might be able to admit that Joanna is just pieces of my psyche that I keep locked away, but... she enjoyed herself. It wasn't rape this time. He didn't order her to be still and have his way with her. They... made love, almost. As close as they could, I mean. He's a sociopath, but... she liked it. She contributed. She.... I can't own that."

"But you wanted to own the baby?"

"I wanted to be a mother. He robbed me of that. I thought it was only fitting that he be the one to... give it back."

"The baby would have killed you."

"That didn't matter. My purpose was to be a mother. Fulfilling that purpose would have been... it would have been okay if I died, because I would have fulfilled my purpose."

"So, you need a new purpose. Your purpose was Coulson, then it was being a mother. You need a new reason to live."

Cassie nodded.

"I think you have a purpose lined up." Andrew picked up the folder and flipped it open. "Says you've been courted to be an Avenger. Also, Coulson was interested in using you for SHIELD."

"I can't work for SHIELD. It wouldn't work. No one would trust me. I'm Red Skull's daughter. I had a two year long relationship with the current Director of SHIELD. I can't work under him."

"And the Avengers?"

"I want that to work." She resolved. "But things are awkward there. They all watched me fall apart. They know more about me than they do about each other, and they've been working together for years. They've saved the world together. They saved the world from me."

"Don't backslide into that, Cassie. You were never the thing they had to save the world from. You didn't do anything evil or world-ending. That was all Loki."

"You're right. I didn't do anything... horrible."

"And I believe that you are strong enough to get past the awkwardness. I think, if you could get past everything else that has happened to you, and you did start to get past everything else that happened, then you can get past the awkwardness of people knowing a bit more about you than you'd like."

"Thank you, Dr. Garner. I-I'm glad I came to talk to you."

"If you are going to be in New York, at the Tower, working with the Avengers, I'd like you to come talk to me every once in a while. Monthly, maybe every other month, if you can spare the time. I'll put it on SHIELD's tab, you won't have to pay anything but time."

Cassie stood, offering her hand. "I'll see what I can do, Doc."

He took her and and shook it, confidently. "It's nice to know I've helped give the world it's next superhero."

**********************************

Cassie walked into Stark Tower and headed to the top levels. She walked into the shooting range and smiled at Clint.

"Where've you been?"

"Several places. I started in a bar, where I was accosted by a former SHIELD HYDRA agent who recognized me from my file, then I went down to the subway, where I was extracted by your ex-wife, who took me to SHIELD headquarters for a chat with Phil. Phil sent me to go talk to a shrink. I figured it out, though. Well, Doc Garner figured it out, but it cleared everything up for me."

Her smile was contagious, causing a confused smile to spread over Clint's face. "I'm not evil. Never was. And Joanna, she wasn't evil, either. She was me, right down to the Judeo-Christian morals SHIELD forced on me. That's why I didn't kill anyone when I was her. I actively kept people from being killed. Yeah, she was bit immodest, but fundamentally same as me. Every other problem I have... they all seem so insignificant."

Clint wiped his thumb under her left eye and smiled, softly. "So... better, then?"

"Better. Ready to get some training so I can help get that sceptre back where it belongs."

Clint nodded, pulling a gun from his waistband and handing it to her. "So, you met Bobbi, huh?"

She nodded. "The woman is gorgeous. How could you let that get away?"

"Life got in the way. The job, the life. I spent 2 years doing surveillance on you, wasn't able to share my mission specs with her and didn't know when I would be back. She got tired of waiting, ran into the arms of some skinny British guy she met on a job. You know how it is." Clint said, bending down to pull another gun off of his ankle.

"Your marriage died because of me?"

"No. Not because of you. Because of the job. And some cocky piece of shit named Lance Hunter. Not you, not her, not really him. It just... happened." Clint pulled the magazine from the bottom of the gun and showed it to her. "Magazine. Bullets. 9 in the mag, 1 in the chamber for the gun you've got. Don't point at anything you aren't prepared to shoot. Never point the gun at yourself, or me. Everything Ops is in the lungs. You'll hear people say it's in the heart, in the muscles, but when you get down to the brass tacks, if you can't control your breathing, you are fucked, and not in the fun way."

*****************************

Cassie made her way upstairs after several hours of breathing and breaking down and putting back together her weapon. She had done well in her first training session and it occurred to her that HYDRA might have given her weapons training back when she was younger. She thought, maybe, that was some of the 'indoctrination' SHIELD had trained out of her.

Steve was standing at a blackboard in the room he'd called Romanoff and Clint into when she'd first arrived back from Austria. Cassie walked in and closed the door behind her. Steve pulled his attention from the blackboard and turned.

"Miss Campbell, how can I-"

"Don't 'Miss Campbell' me. Please. You didn't even do that when we first met. It was 'miss', then kinda thinking I was 'devil spawn', then we were on a date and you were calling me 'Cassie'. It was a weird, fast progression, but I know you had fun on that date, Steve, or you wouldn't have asked me on a second one. I had fun, too, until Joanna came out. And I know that finding out that the girl you were kinda courting is baby-obsessed and was in love with the SHIELD agent who helped get you acclimated to the 21st century and was pregnant back when she was with him, well it's enough to put anyone off and I get that, and I'm not trying to cash in on that second date you offered, I just want this to not be awkward between us, okay?" She rambled. She knew she had rambled. She wished she hadn't rambled. 

Steve set his chalk on the ledge of the chalk board and walked around to sit on the edge of the desk she stood in front of. "I wasn't calling you 'Miss Campbell' because I was pushing you away or to be awkward. Phil wanted to talk to you. I thought he might want to give your relationship a second chance. He isn't with the cellist any more. He was your love. The one you thought you'd never have again. I thought it might be easier for you if you didn't think of me."

"Phil just wanted to let me know that he'd put me on the Index and that I had a place at SHIELD, if I wanted. Then, he shipped me off to a shrink, who actually helped me a lot more than I thought he would."

"Doctor Garner?" Cassie nodded. Steve laughed. "The man is good. Doc Garner helped me work out a lot of my displacement issues. The sadness over losing Bucky and Peggy."

"He made me realize I'm not evil. It's a plus in my world full of minuses." She said, with a smile. She was happy the shroud of awkwardness had dissipated.

"Well, you have to have the minuses, right? Gotta have the tragic back story to be a great superhero. Tony was attacked and kidnapped in the Middle East, had to create the arc reactor in a cave with limited supplies. Bruce lost everything the first time he turned into the Hulk. Romanoff spent her childhood in a KGB assassin school and well, everyone I knew is dead or dying. Highlight of my life was World War II. How sad is that?"

"What's Barton's back story?" Cassie asked.

"Abusive father. Foster care. Ran away to join the circus. Learned swordsmanship and then he learned precision ranged weaponry from a man called Trick Shot." Natasha had walked in, but neither super soldier had heard her enter. "He was a thief for a while. I'm not ashamed to say I cultivated that skill when I met him. We went straight together, but he had to talk me into it. Steve, can we have the room?"

Steve nodded and stood. "Be nice, Natasha."

"You have to pick." Natasha said, shutting the door behind Steve.

"Pick?"

"Steve is a nice guy. He's adapted well to a world where women can be more than just housewives. He's nice. Barton is a child of the 70s. He's forward. He's blunt. Those are my favorite things about him. He is obsessed with the thought of fixing you. He blames himself for you being broken." Natasha leaned against the back of a chair 2 feet in font of Cassie. "He did give your name to Loki, but I hardly feel that puts him at fault for everything Loki did. And it definitely doesn't put him at fault for what Joanna did. Barton is important to me. Very important. If you are going to be with Steve, you need to let Barton know. You need to pick."

Cassie looked down, shaking her head, slightly. "You think I'm going to string along your friends."

"I know a cocktease when I see one. Half of my career has been stringing along powerful men."

"Look, Romanoff. I don't have to pick. Because I am not trying to fuck your friends, and I'm not looking for a relationship, either. I'm here to help save the world from omnipresent evil. HYDRA, Loki, whatever Phil is dealing with back at SHIELD. I'm not here for love or sex. Okay?" Natasha looked her over, before nodding once, standing and walking out the door. Cassie stared after her. "I should've taken my chances in Austria with Loki. Much less drama."


	9. Rising up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter.

Cassie rode the elevator down to level 69 and walked up to her door. She stood for several minutes, staring at the handle. "Would you like for me to open the door to your apartment, Miss Campbell?" Jarvis asked over an invisible speaker.

She took a deep breath, steadying her breathing like Clint had been preaching at her several hours before. "Yes, please, Jarvis. Thank you." 

The door flung open, forcing her to move her feet forward and into the apartment. She took a moment to thoroughly check every room, closet and dark corner for signs of Loki, before sitting down on the couch and bendy down to take off her boots. She looked around. "I think I can do this." 

She laid back on the couch and closed her eyes. "No fighting my destiny. I can do this."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Wake up, Queenie." A soft voice whispered.

Cassie woke, peacefully opening her eyes. "What time is it?" She asked, sitting up and stretching her arms out above her head.

Clint smiled at her from his spot, sitting directly in front of her on her coffee table. "0600. I woulda let you sleep longer, but Jarvis swears you were in REM by 8 last night." He handed her a brown paper bag with savory smells that made her mouth water. "Breakfast burrito."

She tore into the bag, hunger hitting her hard. As she bit into the burrito, he cleared his throat. "So, I called Fury. You field-stripped your gun a little too well, ya know? So, apparently, 10 year old Junior was gonna be a soldier, whether her genetics said 'Super' or not. Fury said, they washed it away. Made you forget."

"'at eshains it." She took a moment to swallow her burrito before clearing her throat. "That explains why I could do so much of this Ops shit as Joanna. I have access to different parts of myself as her. I remember my time in Der Spielplatz when I'm her. I don't, really, when I'm me. So, what, as you're training me, this HYDRA training might bleed through?"

"I don't think it will be a big deal. I don't think you'll end up shouting 'Hail HYDRA' just because I teach you how to shoot a gun, but we might want to keep it on the down low that Fury might've accidentally turned you into a sleeper agent."

Cassie glared, playfully, crumbling up the paper bag and tossing it at Clint's face. He ducked. "Wow, good aim."

She smiled and stood up. Clint followed. "So, what? Back up to the training room to breathe some more?"

Clint nodded. "I was thinking some hand to hand training today. See how much you remember from your tiny commando training days."

"Es ist wie fahrrad fahren können. Ja?"

"Wir werden sehen." Clint said, walking toward her door. Cassie liked the thick thud of his boots on her hardwood floors. There was a safety in the sound. She grabbed a pair of gloves from a drawer where she'd placed them months before and followed Clint out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three hours later, Cassie was siting at a table in a conference room on one of the lower levels, waiting for Clint to come back. When Clint walked back in, he was followed by Maria Hill and Natasha Romanoff. "I'm telling you... she's good to go on this mission."

"And I'm telling you, there's no possible way." Maria said, pulling out her chair and sitting across from Cassie.

"Not after only 2 training sessions." Romanoff chipped in.

"HYDRA had plenty of time with me." Cassie said. Clint shook his head, disappointed. "Clint thinks I shouldn't tell anybody. Some kinda sleeper agent thing. Whatever. HYDRA taught me how to fight. Started on me with it when I was very young. By the time SHIELD got to me, I was well-trained. Enough that Fury wiped it from my mind once he got me to the Fridge. I guess being Joanna jostled it out of my memory. Training with Clint brought it back the rest of the way."

"And you want us to take you out to a HYDRA base? How do we know that you haven't been activated and you want to go with us to sabotage us?" Natasha asked.

"Ich bin nicht dumm, Romanoff. And I have, since I was Joanna, put a handsome ex-SHIELD agent in his place when he tried to take me back to HYDRA. I could have gone with him. If I were a whore or a spy, I would have. I am not stupid. I am not HYDRA. If I were, why would I tell you how I learned? I could have lied."

"Should've lied." Clint provided.

"Could've said I learned while I was with Loki, but I told the truth because I didn't want to lie to you guys. You're supposed to be my teammates."

Maria looked at Natasha and gave an exaggerated shrug. She sighed. "I trust Clint's judgement on this. He is the one who watched her for 2 years. If he says she's fit for the field and... isn't a double agent, that's good enough for me."

"But he was watching her because Fury thought she might be using Coulson to gain information for enemy forces."

"Like you and all the rest of SHIELD were doing?" Cassie snapped.

"Hey!" The three SHIELD agents looking at her whined in unison.

"No. You don't get to do that. See, Phil told me stuff. Stuff I wasn't supposed to know. I did nothing with that. You and the rest of SHIELD spent 75 years gathering information for HYDRA. You and the rest of SHIELD were HYDRA. I never left them. I could have turned out to be one of them, but I turned out to be a good person. Even my dark side has a respect of human life. I am a good woman. I am the only person in this room who has never killed anyone. Let me do this. Lassen sie mich diese arbeit zu tun. Lassen sie mich ein Avenger sein."

"You know you go into German when you're frustrated?" Maria asked.

"It's all I spoke for 2 months! And 10 years." She sighed. "I have to do this. I have to have a purpose. I need this as my purpose. Let me be an Avenger."  

"I don't think Natasha is saying that you shouldn't be an Avenger, I think she wants to make sure..." Clint started, but Cassie cut him off.

"Don't speak for her, Clint. She doesn't want me to go. She doesn't want me on the team. She thinks I'm trying to string you along, come between the team by wriggling into you and Steve's hearts. She called me a cocktease. That's what Natasha Romanoff thinks of me. That's how she judges me." Cassie said, her eyes never leaving Romanoff.

"I won't apologize for my voicing my suspicions. And for the record, Clint, I just told her that she needed to choose. The way she cries on your shoulder about not knowing who she is, and comes to you for training after spending 2 days away from the Tower doing who knows what. And I caught the look she gave Steve when we first brought her in, and then, I find her in a closed room with Steve, talking about that second date he promised her."

"If you were listening to that entire conversation, then you know that I told him that I didn't want to go on that second date, that I just wanted it to stop being awkward between us."

"I hear more than just the words. I hear the tone. That 'fuck me' whisper." 

"Oh, my god! You... you... okay, bitch. I'm going to Steve and Tony. You don't run shit around here. I'm going to the bosses." Cassie said, shooting to her feet and stomping out of the room.

"Damn it, Nat!" Clint groaned, before following Cassie out.

Clint caught up to her as she walked into the elevator. He grabbed her hand and gently pushed her against the elevator wall. As the doors closed, she stared up at him. "I don't agree with Nat." He whispered.

Her eyes tore away from his, trying to not get caught in his deep blues. "She's right. I want you both. That's why I determined not to try for either of you. That's why I told Steve I just wanted to get rid of the awkwardness. I can't have you both, so I am not trying to be with either one."

"That's not going to work." Clint said, putting his left hand out to push the red stop button. "I don't know, exactly, how Steve feels about you, but I can't stop thinking about you. It was a huge motivator in finding you in Austria. I found you and I'm not going to let Steve have you, just like I'm not going to let you walk away or let Nat chase you away." Clint whispered into her left ear, causing shivers to run down her spine.

"If I give in here, Clint, then she is right. She's right about me. Don't make me be what she thinks of me."

Clint pulled away and pulled the red button back out. "Jarvis, take us to the penthouse."

"Right away, Agent Barton."


	10. Red Queen

As Cassie walked into Stark's office, three things happened in rapid succession. First, Cassie realized that the elevator must've been stopped a lot longer than she thought, since Natasha had gotten there first. Second, Steve hurled his shield at her from across the room by Tony's desk, and third, Tony's gauntlet-covered hand shot at her with a repulsor blast. Cassie grabbed the shield from the air and protected herself from the blast, which sent her tumbling backward. She dropped the heavy Frisbee and did a somersault, jumping to her feet into a fighting stance.

"I don't know, Romanoff. She looks mission ready to me." Tony said, lowering his arm.

"It doesn't bother you that she is starting to remember her HYDRA indoctrination?"

"You remember your KGB training. You are still on our side." Clint said.

"That's not..."

"Whatever's got your spandex in a knot, straighten it out. She's coming with us. Come on, blondie." Stark said, walking out of his office and into the lab across the way. Cassie followed, slowly.

As soon as she entered the lab, Tony handed her a swatch of fabric. "A couple of weeks ago, Jarvis and I came up with this fabric. It was mostly Jarvis. But it's a flexible, breathable, tough fabric. Protects like kevlar, moves like cotton." Cassie pulled at the fabric, it gave a little, but didn't really stretch. "Thought I'd give you the honor of having the first super suit made of the stuff." Stark finished, hitting a button on his tablet. A panel on his wall opened and revealed a mannequin wearing a pair of jeans and a long-sleeve turtleneck.

"That's a super suit?"

"I figured you'd want something you could be comfortable in. Jarvis scanned your closet. It was this or a 3/4 sleeve skater dress. Thought the pants would be better for combat."

"Well, I don't know how comfortable I'll be. There is no way that I'll fit in that."

"Were there no mirrors in Austria? It'll fit. I took the measurements from Banner's scans of you the day you got back and allowed some room for weight gain when you start eating like a normal person again."

Cassie walked up and traced a chess piece in the middle of the shirt. "I can't believe I get to be a superhero."

"Isn't this better than hiding? That trashy apartment in the Bronx, that little church in Austria. Being an Avenger is pretty great comparatively." Tony said, pulling the outfit from the mannequin.

Cassie smiled, pulling the outfit from his hand. "You don't think I need head protection?"

"Nah. You've proven to be pretty hard-headed. Go try it on. We're gonna do a mission brief and head out in a few hours."

*******************

Cassie sat in the debriefing room, the chalkboard was pushed out of the way to make room for a projection screen. She sat in silence, in her new uniform, as Steve told everyone what their part in the mission would be.

"And this is going to be Cassie's first mission, so she is going to be bringing up the rear. Staying near the jet with Banner."

Cassie nodded. She wasn't happy about guarding the jet, but she understood she had to prove herself.

"If there are no questions, let's suit up and head out." Steve said.

Cassie stood and started to walk out when Tony wrapped an arm around her shoulder and started guiding her toward his office. "You aren't gonna be bringing up the back." He whispered.

"What? But Steve said-"

"I got something else for you. Come talk to me."

Cassie followed Tony into his office as he started to get ready to suit up. "The guy in charge of this base is a man named Strucker. Know the name?"

"It's familiar. Why is it familiar?"

"He used to run the labs at Der Spielplatz. He ran right before Fury took the base. He knows you."

"Oh. Strucker. Right. So, what's the... plan?"

"I'm gonna fly you in. We'll let the others think you are patrolling by the jet, but I'll drop you on the other side of the compound. You're going to drop some names, pull out your inner 'Junior' and get inside. Once you're in, you bring down the shielding."

"Steve's got you on shield duty."

"I'm delegating."

"And the others aren't supposed to know I'm doing this, right? So, I'm not gonna be able to talk on the comms about this. You want me to go into a HYDRA facility with no back-up and no comms?"

Tony shrugged. "What do you think?"

"It's better than staying by the jet."

"Exactly what I wanted to hear."


	11. Mission: The First

Tony dropped her near the back side of the compound and she started pushing toward the back. As she rounded the side of a brick wall, Cassie heard boots crunch behind her.

"Who are you? Turn around." The guard ordered.

Cassie resisted the urge to put her hands up, instead putting an indignant look on her features as she turned. The two guards had their machine guns raised and were noticeably confused by the blond girl in the T-shirt and jeans, creeping through the snow. "Zat's a bad idea." She inflected a German accent to her words. "I'm here to see Herr Strucker. Put zee guns down, take me to him and you probably von't be disemboweled for your insolence."

"Who are you?" The taller of the guards demanded.

"If you don't know, zen you von't know. Get on your little radio and tell Strucker 'Junior has come home'. Zose exact vords, no defiation. Strucker vill know vat it means."

They stared at her for a moment before the shorter one lower his gun and pulled out a radio. "Herr Strucker?"

"What?" Came from the little speaker.

"We found a woman by the wall. She says she's here for you. She said to tell you 'Junior has come home'?"

The silence on the other end dragged on for several moments before static came through the radio. "Bring her inside."

Cassie walked between the two guards and was brought into the compound. As she walked through the compound, she noticed a young woman and a man standing together, off to the side near several computers. She was placed in a room with a desk and left alone. An overhead speaker came on in the office, and an alert went out. "Report to your stations immediately. This is not a drill. We are under attack. We are under attack."

Over the comm in her ear, which Tony had set so she could hear, but no one could hear her, she heard Tony exclaim "Shit!" and Steve respond with "Language!". As the action heated up outside the compound, Cassie took the comm out of her ear and dropped it in her pocket. Strucker opened the door and locked it behind him.

"452. You've grown into a beautiful young woman. Where have you been?"

"Vell, after you abandoned me at Der Speilplatz, Fury took me to zee Fridge. You know about zee Fridge, yes? It vas a prison. I spent 10 years in a SHIELD prison. I, eventually, von the love of a high-level agent who had Fury's ear and he arranged for my release. I convinced zem all zat I vas... normal, zat I'd fallen for zeir brainvashing. I'd have come to find you earlier, but Fury vasn't entirely convinced. He had an agent tailing me. After zee Battle of New York, I had a chance. I vas vorking to find you, specifically, but you idiots sought it vould be a great time to unveil yourselves, so zat Captain America could dismantle everysing ve spent 70 years creating in secret. You must be so proud."

"Well, we tried to find you, to bring you home."

"You didn't try hard enough. 10 years, Volfgang, and 2 more whoring myself to a man almost shree times my age so zat I could keep zee act going. And here I find you vis SHIELD artifacts, doing experiments to make people half as strong as me. Vhy didn't you just come find me?"

A nervous look came over Strucker's face. "I didn't know you'd developed abilities. Listen, you need... this building is under attack. We need to get you out of here. You are more important than anything in this compound."

"Even your little projects?" She feigned a mild jealousy. "Go rally zee men, Volfgang. I'm not going anyvere." 

"All right, 452. Stay out of sight. Stay safe."

"It's Joanna, Baron."

"Joanna, then." Strucker said, walking out the door. 

Cassie watched as the man walked away. She grabbed her ear piece from her pocket and placed it back into her ear. "Stark, we need to get inside." Steve's voice came through the comm.

"I'm closing in. Jarvis, am I... closing in? Do you see a power source for that shield?" Tony responded. Cassie felt that was a question more for her, than for Jarvis, so she ran around to the other side of the desk and pulled out the drawers, looking for a clue of where to start. After finding nothing, she slipped out the door and headed to the right. She followed a staircase up to find a large glowing column.

"There's a pathway below the North tower." Jarvis said in her ear.

"Great. I wanna poke it with something." Stark said.

"Good idea." Cassie said to herself, picking up a piece of pipe leaning against the wall and jamming it into the middle of the generator. It sparked, then exploded, tossing her into the wall.

"Drawbridge is down, people." Tony said.

"The enhanced?" Thor asked.

"He's a blur. All the new players we've faced, I've never seen this." Steve answered. "In fact, I still haven't."

"Clint's hit pretty bad, guys. We're gonna need evac." Romanoff came over the comm, causing Cassie to sit up. Clint was hurt and she wasn't out there where she could help. She wasn't where she should be.

"I can get Barton to the jet. The sooner we're gone, the better. You and Stark secure the scepter." Thor seemed to answer Cassie's concerns. She slowly stood, content that Tony and Steve would be inside soon and the situation would diffuse, now that she'd done her part.

"Copy that."

"It looks like they're lining up." Thor mused.

"Well, they're excited." Cap responded, before a sound of explosion came through.

"Find the scepter." Thor ordered.

"And for gosh sake, watch your language!" Stark teased.

Steve sighed. "That's not going away anytime soon."

Cassie slowly found her way back down the stairs. She went to the opposite side of the hall when she came to the bottom of the stairs, quickly catching up to Steve as he found Strucker. She was down the stairs from where Steve emerged.  "Baron Strucker. HYDRA's number one thug."

"Technically, I'm a thug for SHIELD." Strucker quipped.

"Well, then technically, you're unemployed. Where's Loki's scepter?"

"Don't worry, I know when I'm beat. You'll mention how I cooperated, I hope."

"I'll put it under illegal human experimentation. How many are there?" Steve asked as the brunette in the red coat came up behind Steve and blasted him with some sort of energy. He flew down the stairs, where Cassie grabbed him, helping him up. Steve gave her a confused look, before saying, "We have a second enhanced. Female. Do not engage."

"You'll have to be faster than-" Strucker began before Steve bashed him with his shield.

"Guys, I got Strucker." He said.

"Yeah. I got... something bigger." Tony said, over the comms as Steve picked Strucker up, turning to Cassie.

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the jet."

"Tony had another idea. I jumped at it. You wouldn't have wanted to wait at the damn jet, either. Just like you didn't want to wait at the base while Bucky and hundreds of Americans were rotting in a HYDRA camp."

"Yeah? What was Tony's idea?"

"I got us in. I brought the shields down, not Iron Man. That man, there, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, he knows me. Knew me. I used that to get inside, used the distraction of the battle in the woods to get to the generator in the North tower and I blew that shit up. Pardon my language." She said, with a small smirk.

"Not you, too."

"Of course, me too. Now, you want some help with Strucker, or are you gonna muscle that mound of meat out of here yourself?"

"I got him. Get back to the jet. Please, be careful. Watch out for the enhanced." He said, a concerned tone in his voice. 

"Yes, sir."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cassie sat next to Clint on the jet, not leaving his side to join the conversation around the jet. She'd heard Banner lamenting his change and the HYDRA agents he'd killed, but no one had said anything about the fact that she was the third-to-last person to get on the jet. Natasha had glared at her several times, but she'd focused on Clint and the massive hole in his side. At some point in the flight, Clint had reached over, weakly, and grabbed her hand. 

As Clint was pulled off the quinjet to be operated on, Cassie was told to stay back. Tony grabbed her and pulled her to the lab. She stared at the scepter as Tony scanned it. "You did good. I'm impressed."

"Well, impressing you is always at the forefront of my mind, Tony."

"No, it's good. I can trust you. And by that, I mean I can convince you to go behind the backs of our teammates and take credit for your work."

Cassie laughed. "I just really wanted that scepter in Asgardian hands. Where it'll be safe. Any means necessary."

"And that had nothing to do with you being offended that Cap told you to wait in the car while the rest of us played exterminator for a giant serpent?"

"Well, that won't happen again, right? I've proven myself. I spent more time in that compound than anyone else."

"Sure." Tony said, succinctly, before continuing. "Unless the reason he wanted you to hang back was less about your capabilities and more about him worrying for your safety."

"Well, he shouldn't be worrying about me. I'm perfectly capable of-"

"What you're capable of doesn't matter. This isn't about your training or your track record. I put you in that compound because you survived a week in the Alps in a hospital gown and then blended in with a small Austrian town. You were born for this shit. Maybe not meant to be on this side of it, but... Cap's issue is not your ability to do this. This is about how upset he is on the idea of you dying without him having a chance to be modestly immodest with you."

Cassie scoffed. "I thought he got the memo. I'm not doing the dating thing. Shit's complicated enough without that mess."

"He didn't get that memo. And you know, he's the boss, really, so... we can keep sneaking behind the boss' back or..."

"If the next words out of your mouth are anything akin to 'take one for the team', I'll walk."

Tony shrugged. "I'm good with things as is."

Cassie sighed. "I'll talk to Steve. Make sure we're good. But I'm not fucking him just because I'm the first one he's wanted since he lost Agent Carter."

"No one said..."

Cassie shook her head. "I'll deal with this. You... concentrate on the scepter."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cassie walked the halls of the upper levels of Stark tower, rehearsing what she would say to Steve, for 45 minutes before she ran into him. "Hi, Steve."

"Hey. What are you doing?"

"Nothing. I've got nothing. I'm trying to not think too much. I don't wanna say I'm floundering... but I'm floundering. I mean, yeah, the scepter's safe, but Loki's still MIA, and the Avengers are about to break apart until the next time the Earth needs it's mightiest heroes and I don't know what to do with that downtime. Then, there's the awkward elephant in the room."

"You wanna know if we're okay?" Steve asked, succinctly.

"Yeah. I mean... I followed Tony's orders instead of yours. I know that was a slap in the-"

"Cassie, it's fine. I understand. I shouldn't have tried to keep you out of the fight. Never tell him I said this, but Stark was right. There was better use of your time."

She smiled. "I'm glad."

"Look, I understand how down time can be a bit disconcerting. I know it's not Austria but I'm sure you can find something peaceful to do."

"Austria wasn't peaceful. It was mind numbing, which is what I wanted at the time. I prefer the city, though. Look, I... Pepper wants me to go back to work in the lab, but... I think that would be more boring than working a grill. Please, tell me that you have something useful for me to-"

"Actually, I don't. The only thing I have is tracking those two enhanced. Why don't you check on Barton? I think Doc's finished patching him up. After that, we'll discuss ways that we can put your skills and enhancements to good use. Even if the Avengers aren't assembled, we have use for you. Stick around. Oh, and there's the party."

"I will stick around for that. Definitely. I mean, I live right downstairs." Cassie said, walking away.


	12. Wallflower

"Hey." Cassie said, walking into the OR to see Clint sitting up, Natasha standing next to him.

Clint smiled. "Hey. Wanna come feel my side? Doc says you can't even tell the difference."

She gave a nervous look to Natasha before shaking her head. "Maybe later. How you feel, though?"

"I'm not dead, so... no complaints."

"I have one. Why weren't you by the jet?" Black Widow snapped.

Cassie's stomach clenched at the sudden attack. "I had other orders."

"What other orders?"

"I don't answer to you, Romanoff. Take it up with Steve and Tony, but really, why does it matter? It's not like my being at the jet would have kept Clint from getting shot. That's your job, isn't it?"

"She's right, and I'm fine, by the way."

Natasha shot ice at Clint, before standing and walking out of the room. Clint took Cassie's hand and placed a kiss on her knuckles. "You gotta back off of Nat. She's the best friend. She's gonna have some issues with you. It's protective instinct."

"Back off? She attacks me and I gotta back off? What does she have to feel protective about? She doesn't know me, Clint. She just assumes that, since I happen to be attracted to two different men, I'm going to try to sleep with both of them. That's not who I am, not in either of my personalities."

Clint smiled. "You're right. She doesn't know you and that's not who you are. Listen, we just gotta let her get to know you. She'll come around. So, what are you doing until the party?"

"I was thinking training. You never know when the next threat will pop up and I want to be good for more than just walking up to HYDRA agents and asking them if they know who my daddy is so they'll take me inside and let me turn off their defenses."

"Oh, is that what your other orders were?"

"Yep. Go up, pull an intimidating face, get inside, turn off shields. It worked."

"Of course it did. You're very intimidating."

"Oh, yuk it up, but while you were taking fire, I was convincing Strucker that I was very disappointed in the direction Hydra had taken since the Battle of New York. I was cold, heartless... German. I was exactly how I think I woulda been if Fury hadn't stuck me in the Fridge."

"Well, if that's how you woulda been... thank God for Fury."

"You gonna train me or not, Hawk?"

"I was kinda hoping for some fun. I did almost die, ya know." His boots hit the floor with a thud as he hopped off the bed. "We can train whenever. I was thinking a bar of the dive variety, maybe hustle a darts game for some spending money, take you on a tour of the city."

"Am I supposed to just be arm candy for this expedition? Come on, Clint. I need to train."

"Later, I promise, but don't I deserve a drink after getting blasted by a laser rifle?"

"Yes, and that's why Tony brought you one. I'm gonna stay here. I'll pull your wing chun dummy out of the closet and train myself. Grab Romanoff, I'm sure she'd be happy to go drink some tasteless potato alcohol with you."

"You know, most of us just call it vodka."

"Go on. Have fun."

Clint's smile didn't hide his disappointment, but Cassie just nodded at him as he walked out of the room.

**********************************************

Cassie had always been shit at parties. She was a wallflower. She wasn't an introvert when it came to the labs or normal interactions but put her in a room with dozens of people all talking at once and she was only a little better than mute.

"You look about as at home here as I feel." A voice next to her said, causing her to look up. It was Steve's friend, Sam.

She nodded. "Yeah. I might be... one of them, but I'm not one of them."

"I don't think that's true. Steve speaks highly of you."

"Yeah. I'm great. Inexperienced, but highly motivated and full of potential. Awkward as hell in social situations, though."

"It's a big party. I know exactly 2 people here."

"Well, 3 now. It's Sam, right? Or do you prefer 'Falcon'?"

"Yeah. Sam Wilson. You should probably mingle, ya know? Get your name out there."

Cassie scoffed. "You know I've got two names, right? Not counting my alias while I was in Austria."

"I think Cassie Campbell is the socially acceptable side of you that Avengers PR would like you share with the room." Clint said, jumping over the back of the couch to sit next to her.

"You smell like whiskey, Clint."

"That didn't bug you the night we met." He whispered with a smirk. "Why don't you, though? It's a party, why aren't you drinking?"

"I dunno. Haven't felt the need to kill brain cells since my revelation with Doctor Garner. Might have a drink of whatever Thor's got in his flask, though. Looks like it's puttin' people down up on the balcony."

"So, how'd your training go?" Clint asked as Sam waved at her before walking away.

"You mean, my two days of training by myself because you wanted to go do something fun and never found your way back? It was just fine. Hill came up, gave me a couple pointers. You know, you aren't the only Ops agent I know."

"Well, as long as you didn't call on Coulson. That would've hurt my feelings."

"Why? I asked you to train. You said, you actually promised, that you would come train me later, but you never showed."

"Well, 'later' is kinda noncommittal. Later is like tomorrow. Always a day away."

"Right. Noncommittal. 'Cause that's what I need from you, right now."

"You need something from me?"

"Apparently not." Cassie said, standing and walking toward the stairs to the balcony. Clint grabbed her hand and pulled her, ignoring her sounds of protest, through the party. He pulled her into a closet, full to bursting with guests' coats. "What are you doing, Clint?"

"I thought you weren't doing the dating thing, Cass? If I have a shot, let me know. If I don't, don't get upset that I'm being noncommittal."

Cassie looked around the tiny room. "I'm not... looking for... I don't want... Fuck, I don't know, Clint."

Clint grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her into a sloppy, drunk kiss. Her hands went to his head, one hand bracing the back of his neck and the other pushing the back of his head. He pulled away, looking down at her. "No more 'laters'. Do you want this... do you want me, or not?"

Cassie looked up at him. "Of course, I do. It's just... what about..."

"No. This isn't about Steve and it's not about Nat. You want to be with me. I want to be with you.  That's all that matters. We don't even have to tell anybody. It can just be us."

"Let's talk about it after the party, for now let's just..." Cassie looked up, putting her hands on the sides of his head and kissing him.


	13. Peace in our time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, some consensual sex in this chapter.

Cassie sat next to Clint on the floor around a coffee table with the rest of the Avengers and several 'friends'. The party had died down and they were having their last few beers and talking about Thor's hammer. 

**"** But, it's a trick!" Clint exclaimed, twirling a drumstick between his fingers.

"Oh, no." Thor defended. "It's much more than that."

"Uh, 'Whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power!" Clint teased. "Whatever, man! It's a trick."

"Well, please, be my guest." Thor gestured at the hammer.

"Really?"

"Yes. Go ahead."

Rhodey chuckled. "Oh, this is gonna be beautiful."

"Clint, you've had a tough week, we won't hold it against you if you can't get it up." Tony teased, prompting laughter from the others.

"You know I've seen this before, right?" Clint said, standing and  walking over to the hammer. He put his drumsticks in his left hand and placed his right on the handle of the warhammer. "And I still don't know how you do it." He laughed, after failing.

"Smell the silent judgement?" Tony asked.

"Please, Stark, by all means." Clint challenged. Stark accepted, standing.

"Oh, here we go." Widow said.

"Okay." Maria chimed.

"Uh-oh." Rhodey added. Cassie just watched.

"Never one to shrink from an honest challenge."

"Get after it." Clint encouraged, knowing he'd fail just as badly as he had.

"Here we go." Natasha repeated.

"It's physics."

"Physics!" Banner exclaimed as Tony grabbed the hammer.

"Right, so, if I lift it, I... I then rule Asgard?"

"Yes, of course." Thor confirmed.

"I will be re-instituting Prima Nocta." Tony said, before pulling on the handle with a grunt. It didn't budge. "I'll be right back." He said, before walking away.

"No one's gonna peg him for the Prima Nocta comment?" Cassie asked, before turning to Romanoff. "Prima Nocta? The whole, 'lord of the land gets to take the virginity of the peasant women on their wedding night' thing? Am I the only one offended?"

"I would quite enjoy seeing him try that with an Asgardian woman. Tony would learn what life is like without his... testicles." Thor said as Tony walked back in with a gauntlet on his hand.

Tony grabbed the handle with his gloved hand and pulled, still nothing. "Rhodey, go get yours. Help me."

Rhodes stood and walked away. "I don't think it counts if you have to have help." Cassie said.

"Whatever. Just need to move it." He said as Rhodes walked up, with his gauntlet on. They both grabbed the handle and pulled.

"Are you even pulling?" Rhodes asked.

"Are you on my team?"

"Just represent! Pull!!"

"All right, let's go!" They yelled, pulling. Not a centimeter. As they gave up, Tony looked at Banner. "Think the Big Guy could budge it?"

Bruce stood and wrapped his hands around the handle, yelling to try to get angry, but failing. Just not angry enough. "Huh?"

Steve stood next, not one to let everyone else have their fun without him. Everyone stared as his hands gripped the handle. "Let's go, Steve. No pressure. Come on, Cap." Tony teased.

Steve pulled the hammer, moving it just a little, but couldn't lift it off the table. Thor let out a relieved laugh. "Nothing."

"And?"

"Widow?" Bruce offered.

"Oh, no, no. That's not a question I need answered."

"Cass?" Clint offered.

Thor gestured to the hammer. "Please. Try, Lady Cassie."

Cassie looked around the room before standing. "Yeah, why not? Fail with the big boys, right?" She said, before leaning down next to the hammer and whispering to it. "Okay, Mjolnir. None of these guys can lift you and I am not expecting to, either. But it would be the most amazing thing in my entire existence if I was worthy to just move you a bit. If I was worthy enough for Loki to think I'd be a good queen, I ought to be worthy of moving a magic weapon. Hammer to hammer, let this work." She stood and pulled the handle of the hammer. It moved. Not much, just a couple inches, but it moved and Cassie chuckled.

"That's all I wanted. Thank you, Mjolnir."

"All deference to the man who wouldn't be King, but it's rigged." Tony complained.

"You bet your ass." Clint agreed.

"Steve, he said a bad language word." Maria said, childlike.

"Did you tell everyone about that?"

"The handle's imprinted, right? Like a security code. 'Whosoever is carrying Thor's fingerprints' is, I think, the literal definition?" Tony ignored Steve.

"Yes, well, that's, uh, that's a very, very interesting theory. I have a simpler one." Thor said, standing to lift Mjolnir and flip it in the air like it was nothing. "You're all not worthy."

Cassie laughed as the room disagreed with Thor's assessment, but her eye twitched as a loud scraping squeal filled the room. 

"Worthy. No. How could you be worthy? You're all killers." A voice asked, bringing their attention to a destroyed Iron Legionnaire.

"Stark."

"Jarvis." Tony called, no response. He reached over to grab his tablet.

"I'm sorry, I was asleep. Or... I was a dream?" The robot mused.

Tony tapped on his tablet. "Reboot Legionnaire OS. We got a buggy suit."

"There was a terrible noise... And I was tangled in... in... strings. I had to kill the other guy. He was a good guy."

"You killed someone?" Steve asked.

"Wouldn't have been my first call. But, down in the real world we're faced with ugly choices." The legionnaire moved erratically, like it was unsteady on its feet.

"Who sent you?" Thor demanded.

"' _I see a suit of armor around the world._ '" A recording of Stark's voice played across the penthouse.

"Ultron!" Banner exclaimed, softly. Cassie looked between Stark and Banner in confusion.

"In the flesh." The robot, Ultron, responded as it looked down at the scrap metal of its body. Cassie watched as Thor's grip on Mjolnir got tighter and Hill surreptitiously cocked her pistol in her lap. She found herself wishing she'd come to the party packing. "Or, no, not yet. Not this... chrysalis. But I'm ready. I'm on a mission."

"What mission?" Widow asked as Hill stood.

"Peace in our time." It answered as several Iron Legion robots burst through the walls behind him and flew straight at the team. Steve kicked the coffee table up to deflect the robots, but was thrown backward. Hill, knocked to the floor in the same moment, took the time to put 3 bullets in a Legionnaire as it zoomed above her and Thor put it down with the hammer. Cassie ran toward the closet Clint had pulled her into earlier as glass shattered around her and things exploded. She'd seen two Glocks and a tactical shotgun in there. She checked the weapons were loaded and tucked them into her jeans, before walking back out with the shotgun raised. She shot a Legionnaire as she walked toward the first robot, Ultron. She pumped the shotgun and pulled the trigger as one of the Legionnaire robots shot her in the back, causing the blast to hit the ceiling and her to go down as Clint yelled, "Cap!" and threw the shield at him.

" _That_ was dramatic. I'm sorry, I know you mean well. You just didn't think it through. You want to protect the world, but you don't want it to change. How is humanity saved if it's not allowed to... evolve?" Ultron asked as he picked up the head of one of the Legionnaires and crushed it. Cassie sat up and looked around, trying to act like she wasn't in any pain. "With these? These puppets. There's only one path to peace: The Avengers' extinction."

Mjolnir crashed into Ultron with all her force, breaking its borrowed body into pieces. All eyes were on the flashing lights of its face as it sang, "I had strings but now I'm free." and then the lights dimmed out.

Steve dropped to Cassie's side and pushed her forward, examining her back where she'd been hit. "I'm fine, Steve. Really."

"I've been hit by one of those blasts. It is not pleasant." Thor offered.

Cassie stood, her eyes falling on Stark. "I'm fine. What the hell is an Ultron?"

Stark didn't answer, walking toward the lab. Banner rushed past him and the rest of the team followed, Cassie bringing up the rear. Banner, Stark and Romanoff rushed to the computers, typing and pulling up things on the screens that made little sense from afar. "All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch."

"Ultron." Steve bit out, angrily.

"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Widow said, prompting a worried look from Clint.

"He's like an evil Freakazoid." Cassie mused, causing everyone to look at her with deep confusion. "It's a cartoon, he's... travels through computers on the internet... he's, like, the embodiment of... never mind."

"He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more... exciting?" Rhodey questioned.

"Nuclear codes." Hill said, pulling glass out of the bottom of her foot. Cassie was glad she hadn't dressed up for the party.

"Nuclear codes." Rhodes confirmed. "Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

"Nukes? That seems like overkill." Cassie questioned.

"He said he wanted _us_ dead." Romanoff agreed.

"He didn't say 'dead'. He said 'extinct'." Steve's tone was worried.

"He also said he killed somebody." Barton said, walking down the stairs to stand next to Cassie, blatantly checking her wound.

"But there wasn't anyone else in the building." Maria said.

"Yes, there was." Tony flicked his tablet in the middle of the lab, bringing up a destruction of orange code.

"Is that-?" Cassie asked, her heart fell a little. Jarvis had been part of her life since she was working in the lab, even if a small one.

"This is insane." Bruce walked over to the projection and looked down at it.

"Jarvis was the first line of defense. He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense." Steve explained, looking down sadly.

"No, Ultron could've assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is... rage."

Thor's footsteps thudded loudly against the lab floor as he stalked up to Tony and wrapped his hand around his throat, lifting him off the floor.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Steve shouted.

"It's going around." Clint mused.

"Come on. Use your words, buddy."

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark."

"Thor!" Steve cut in. "The Legionnaire?"

Thor dropped Tony and looked down at him, furious. "Trail went cold about a hundred miles out, but it's headed North. And it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again."

"The genie's out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron."

Cassie's heart pounded for a moment at the implications. The scepter wasn't secured, Loki wasn't secured, and now there was a robot trying to cause the extinction of the Avengers. She took a step closer to Clint, for comfort, and he grabbed her hand, sitting down on the stairs behind Hill and pulling her to sit next to him.

"I don't understand. You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?" Dr. Cho asked.

Tony turned to his computer and began to chuckle, before letting out several laughs. Banner shook his head, trying to get Stark to sober, but it did nothing.

"You think this is funny?" Thor asked.

"No. It's probably not, right?" Tony asked, turning around and looking at his group of friends. "This is very terrible? Is it so... is it so... it is. It's so terrible."

"This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand." Thor growled.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is _funny_. It's a _hoot_ that you don't _get_ why we need this." Tony walked up to Thor.

"Tony, maybe this might not be the time to..." Bruce started, but Tony cut him off, turning on him.

"Really?! That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls?"

"Only when I've created a murder bot."

"We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?" Tony spat back.

"Well, you did something right." Steve said, stepping forward with his arms crossed over his chest. "And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD."

"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony asked, suddenly.

"No, never comes up."

"Saved New York?"

"Never heard that." Rhodes continued.

"Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing 300 feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the live-long day, but, that up there?" He pointed upward. "That's... that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"

"Together." Steve answered, succinctly.

"We'll lose." Tony shot back.

"Then, we'll do that together, too." Tony looked at him for a few moments, before he turned away and Steve did the same. "Thor's right. Ultron is calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller." 

"Dr. Cho, you wanna come take a look at Red?" Clint shouted across the room.

"I'm fine. My wounds... are mostly mental, as always."

"Want me to get Garner on the phone?" Steve asked, walking up.

Cassie shook her head. "I need a shower. And a bottle of rye." She muttered, walking toward the elevator.

******************************

When she exited the shower and walked into her bedroom with a towel wrapped around her, Clint was sitting on her bed, holding two bottles. "No rye, but I did liberate an unbroken bottle of bourbon and a 25 year-old scotch. You interested?"

Cassie let out an airy chuckle. "You know... no. I came down here, all upset. This thing with Ultron, the thing with the scepter... Loki is still missing and I really, _really_ just wanted to drown it all in a bottle, but..." She smiled and dropped the towel, revealing her scarred skin to him. "I think I just want to drown my sorrows in you."

"You sure? 'Cause, at the party-" Clint started, putting the bottles on the floor at their feet.

"I said we'd talk about it after the party. It's after the party. And with the way that party went, the fact that we're gonna be running all over Hell's half-acre until we shut down Ultron... when are we gonna have time again?" She asked, reaching out to pull his leather jacket down his arms.

"I don't want to take advantage of-" Clint started, but Cassie cut him off with a kiss, pressing her bare chest against him. He shook his jacket off of his arms and threw it away from him, his hands groping at the skin of her back and shoulders as he stood. He pulled back from the kiss and looked down at her, his pupils blown wide with lust. "I don't have any protection and I know _you_ don't, Miss Modesty. And don't tell me that it doesn't matter, because it does."

"Clint..."

His hand came up to brush wet hair out of her face. "Hey, don't worry. I am _not_ walking away. Third base isn't so bad."

"Third base? Remember, I haven't been out in the world long. Which one's that?"

"That's the one where my fingers and tongue explore every inch of you... and you can return the favor if you want." He said, with a smile, as he gently pushed her onto the bed. She scooted up the bed until her head hit the pillow as Clint pulled his boots off and pulled his shirts over his head. "You know, you're gorgeous."

"Pale and scarred, that's your type?" She joked.

"Pale, I like. Green eyes, full lips." Clint climbed onto the bed and crawled up her body. "Your breasts are perfect. Just barely bigger than a handful." He brought his hand up to her right breast to demonstrate, kneading his calloused fingertips against the flesh. "You've got this beautiful wave to your hair." He pushed his hand into her wet hair and brought his lips to hers. She opened her mouth and brought her tongue out to lick his lips. He opened his mouth and let their tongues caress. He moaned into her mouth and pulled back. "And you taste good. So good."

Cassie's hands came down to his jeans, pulling at the button. "You smell like leather and whiskey. Never thought... that would be my favorite scent." She whispered. Her hand ran down to cup his growing hardness through the denim.

"You act all innocent, but you know exactly where to put your hands." Clint whispered, next to her ear, before bringing his mouth to her neck, licking and sucking along her neckline.

"Modest isn't the same as innocent, Hawk."

"Hnnn. Love it when you call me by my code." He groaned, kissing down her chest past her scars to take a nipple into his mouth, laving his tongue over it.

"Oh, you're good at that."

He opened his mouth wider to take more of her flesh into his mouth, then scraped his teeth against the sensitive skin. "It gets better." He mumbled against her, as he moved down her body, placing himself between her legs. He placed her legs over his shoulders and brought his right hand up to spread her lips. "You ready?" Cassie nodded, letting her head fall heavily onto the pillow. His tongue slipped from his mouth and descended onto her, drawing figure-eights around and across her clit.

"Oh, my god, Clint!" She whined, squeezing her eyes shut tightly. Clint chuckled as her hands came down to fist in his hair and he pushed one finger slowly into her. It slid in easily, she was dripping wet. He curled his finger up, rubbing against the rough patch inside her. "Holy!" She breathed, tugging at his hair. He pulled his hand back, adding another finger, before beginning to pump his fingers in and out of her, never letting his tongue stop its assault. Her muscles clenched around his fingers as an orgasm rushed through her.

He pulled back, licking his fingers. "So easy. You gotta give me more of a challenge next time."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to cum."

"You just taste so good, I wanted it to last longer." He crawled up the bed, then dropped down next to her, his head hitting the pillow. "You don't have to do anything in return, you know."

"You need to quit treating me like a virgin, Clint."

"That's not what I'm doing."

"Fine." She said, sitting up and looking down at him. "Stop treating me like a victim, then."

He scoffed and sat up. "I'm trying to be respectful, Cass. I mean, even a superhero deserves that. If you want to suck my dick, you are welcome to, but I'm not going to expect that."

She smiled, sweetly, and pressed her lips against his. "Clint, take off your pants." He smiled and lifted his hips, pushing his black jeans down his legs. "No underpants? How immodest."

"Hey, fancy party. I was hoping it'd end like this."

"And yet, you didn't bring protection. Tsk tsk. Shame on you." She chastised, moving down his body. She stopped at his cock, taking it in her left hand and resting her weight on her right. "Let me know if it's too much pressure. I haven't done this since I've been super." She said, taking the tip of him into her mouth and swirling her tongue around him. She brought herself down his length, letting him ease into the top of her throat. She began a pattern of licking her way down to his base, then sucking as she came back up to the tip, her left hand pumping along with her.

As she came around to the 20 minute mark, Clint's muscles tightened. "I'm gonna... Cass, I'm gonna cum." He whispered. She just nodded slightly and brought her mouth down to suck lightly, her tongue caressing the skin on the underside of his dick. She waited a moment for him to stop twitching, before she swallowed and pulled back.

"Oh, you swallow. Between that, the body, the personality and the lack of fatigue, you... are perfect." He said, kissing her forehead and leaning down to pull his jeans up. He grabbed her blanket, which had found its way to the floor, and pulled it up to cover them. He pulled her into his arms, her head leaning against his chest. "So... what does this make us, Red?"

"Exclusive?"

"Are we telling people we're exclusive?"

"Right now, I think I want it to be just you and me."

"That's what 'exclusive' means, Cassie." Clint chuckled.

"You know what I mean, Hawk. I think it complicates... Maybe if we survive this Ultron thing, we'll tell everybody." Her hands came up to rest on his abs. "I can tell the difference." She whispered, running her fingers across the area where the fake skin was.

"Of course, you can. You have enhanced fingertips."


	14. Safe House

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hated the Laura Barton storyline. There was no reason for that. I'm sure Joss had his reasons, but no answer would have been a good excuse for that... so I fixed it. Enjoy.

Cassie woke up alone, but there was a note next to her head. **_Had to vacate. I made bacon and coffee. Call me when you wake up._**

 

She smiled and dressed in a pair of jeans and a short-sleeved blue turtleneck. As she poured coffee into a travel mug, she put her cell on speaker and dialed Clint. "Good morning, Hawk."

"Not so much." Came through the phone. "Uh, so, Natasha knows."

 

"What? Are you kidding me?" She twisted the cap on the mug and picked up her cell phone.

"No. We're spies. She didn't like my answer of where I spent my night, so she followed me on the camera footage."

Cassie took a drink of her coffee and groaned, walking out of her apartment. "I'm sorry, _Agent_ Barton. Aren't you supposed to be well-versed in keeping shit secret?"

"Hey, I'm great at keeping secrets. I was on my way to delete the video from the cams in your apartment when Nat told me she got there first."

"Great. So, your best friend, who thinks I'm a cocktease, knows you spent the night in my bed? Wonderful. So, what, did she tell you to stay away from me? You gonna listen to her?" She asked, getting into the elevator. She rested her phone between her ear and shoulder and pushed her right hand onto the biometric scanner above the numbered buttons.

"That's a negative. I answer to you." His voice switched to a military tone.

"And someone just walked up on you. One of the bosses. Tell me you deleted that footage."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I'm on my way up." She said, pressing numbers on the screen to send her to the lab level. She heard someone in the background, sounded like Steve.

"I gotta go." Clint said, into the phone.

"See ya in few." Cassie said, hanging up and putting her phone in her back pocket. As she walked into the lab, drinking down her coffee like ambrosia, she noticed everyone around Natasha at the computer. "What'd I miss?"

"Ultron killed your buddy Strucker." Tony answered, handing a tablet to her. 'STRUCKER, BARON VON' and 'DECEASED' shined up at her, over a picture of Strucker, dead in his cell. 'PEACE' was written crudely on the wall in blood.

"This is a smokescreen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Natasha asked.

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss." Steve caught on.

"Yeah, I bet he..." Natasha started, pulling up the file on Strucker. "Yep. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."

"Not everything." Steve said, with a smile. "I prefer paper."

"You've got analog files." Cassie said, with a grin. "Thank God for the man out of time. Where are they?"

"There's a storage room down the hall. Strucker files will be there."

The team grabbed the boxes and dug in, Clint taking a box over to the window to be by himself. Cassie stuck by the table, going through a box of Strucker's history. A HYDRA file caught her eye, one labeled 'Projekt Kind'. She pulled it as Steve dropped a box on the table. "Known associates. Strucker had a lot of friends."

"Well, these people are all horrible." Banner said, flipping through files.

"Wait. I know that guy." Tony said, pointing at a picture. "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms."

Steve gave him an accusatory look, so he quickly defended himself as the picture was passed around the table. Cassie tore her eyes away from the 'Kind' file to stand and look over Thor's arm at the picture. The man looked dangerous, covered in tattoos and heavily muscled. "There are conventions, all right? You meet people, I didn't sell him anything. He was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very 'Ahab'."

"This?" Thor asked, pointing to a red symbol on the man's neck.

"Uh, it's a tattoo. I don't think he had it..." Tony answered.

"No, those are tattoos, this is a brand." Thor responded, showing the picture to the table.

"A brand? Like, a voluntary body mod thing, or... 'we want you to be forever remembered as a criminal' kind of thing?" Cassie asked.

"Well, he operates in Africa. There are still tribes that do that. I mean, the ones that don't just kill you." Clint offered from his place behind Stark.

"Let's find out. I'll scan this picture and find the symbol." Banner said, gently taking the picture from Thor's hands and walking to the computer.

As the computer scanned through thousands of symbols, Cassie opened the 'Kind' file. Most of it was numbers and dates. **#1: FEHLSCHLAGEN: 23/5/1978-23/5/1978** , **#5: FEHLSCHLAGEN: 9/6/1978-9/7/1978**... on and on with failure after failure, until **#452: GELINGEN: 12/9/1989-? LEBENDE EXEMPLAR.**

"What are you reading?" Natasha asked from over her shoulder. Cassie hadn't realized how close the Russian was to her.

"Projekt Kind. Me. I'm reading about me, and all the failures that came before me. All the brothers and sisters that died in the petri dish."

"Why was that in with Strucker's stuff?" Banner asked from the computer.

"Because Strucker ran the lab where I was made. It was one of his first assignments, back when he was a balding young HYDRA agent, instead of a bald asshole." She flipped the folder shut and looked around the room. "They called me 452, but I never really thought they'd failed 451 times before they got it right. The one before me only lasted a month. I... wonder what they did right with me."

"Don't worry about what they did, just be glad they did it." Tony said, looking at the computer.

"Oh, yeah." Bruce said, as a match came up on the screen. "It's a word in an African dialect meaning 'thief', in a much less friendly way."

"What dialect?" Steve asked.

"Wakanada?" Bruce tried, before turning back to the screen to try again. "Wa... wa... Wakanda."

The word hit something in Cassie's mind. Phil had told her about Wakanda. What had he said? "If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." Stark started, looking completely exasperated.

"I thought your father said he got the last of it?" Steve said.

"I don't follow. What comes out of Wakanda?" Bruce asked, stepping away from the computer.

Steve and Tony turned their heads to look at Steve's beloved shield. "The strongest metal on Earth."

"Where is this guy now?" Steve asked.

"Africa?" Cassie suggested, taking a drink of her coffee and standing.

"Yeah. A shipyard in Richards Bay, South Africa. East coast, about 600 klicks away from Johannesburg." Natasha said, pulling up a location on the computer. 

"Suit up? I'm gonna go suit up. Meet you at the jet." Cassie said, grabbing the 'Kind' file and walking out with it and her mug. As she waited for the elevator, Natasha walked up beside her, grabbing the folder. "What are you doing, Romanoff?"

"You don't need this. It's a deep hole. You're already in one of those. Don't dig yourself deeper." She held the file away from the blond next to her.

"I'm already in one? Really? I wasn't aware."

Natasha turned to her, the file safely behind her back. "You still don't know who you are. I understand that. You have an internal fight going on between you and the occultist HYDRA princess." She said the words with a mixture of malice and pity. "You're gonna look at this file and see their plans for you. It's HYDRA, so they had your whole life planned out. But you, whoever you _actually_ are, you're not who they wanted you to be. You aren't 452, or Junior. You're Joanna and Cassandra... Red Queen. All of those names, SHIELD and it's operatives gave you. Like you said, even your dark side has a respect for human life. This file is not you."

"Why do you care how deep I dig myself? I'm just a tease, right? Nobody you want on your team."

"Because Barton cares, and you've chosen. That's all I asked. You chose Clint and he asked me to be nice. I'm willing to do that. I'm willing to _try_ to be your friend. I'm happy to be your teammate. Just so long as we're all clear that you've chosen and last night wasn't a fluke."

Cassie sighed and walked onto the elevator as it opened. "I chose. Yesterday, I chose. Not because I was scared of some robot, not because he showed up in my bedroom while I was vulnerable and sad... but because I like the blunt, forward child of the '70s... the man who knows me, both sides of me, better than I do. And better than _you_ do."

"Then, we're fine. See you at the jet." Natasha turned and walked back toward the lab, putting the file under her arm.

***************

"All right. Heavy hitters, go in first. That's me, Thor and Cap. Red, Hawk and Widow, you pull a stealth entrance and bring up the rear. Banner stays on the jet unless we need a 'Code Green'." Tony ordered.

Everyone nodded and readied themselves to head onto the ship. Cassie nodded to Clint as he started to climb to a vantage height, but she stuck to the shadows on the lower. She could hear the A Team above her, chatting with Ultron and the twins. "I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan!" Ultron shouted, before a series of explosions and hits and thuds were heard above her. She pulled her gun from its holster and snuck to a point still mostly covered, but able to take aim at the Ultronbots suddenly flying above, attacking everyone. Two shots to the head of one put it down a few feet from her, and she managed a bullet into the leg of one of Klaue's men. When Steve knocked the fast enhanced into the boxes she was hiding behind, Cassie came around them. No more hiding.

"Stay down, kid." Steve said, before running off.

Cassie pointed her weapon at the Maximoff. "I know you could be gone before I finished pulling this trigger... and even if I could hit you, I wouldn't want a body on my soul, anyway. So, I'm gonna go this way..." She gestured to her left with the pistol. "...and you can go where ever else you want."

The silver haired enhanced looked up at her, then stood, brushing his clothes off. "You have no bodies on your soul? You are Avenger. Is that not requirement for joining?"

She shook her head. "Nicht der Rede wert. You have a vastly distorted view of the Avengers. Your outdated idea of Tony Stark is the problem. But... me... I'm just one of Strucker's experiments gone right. I'm..." Her head went fuzzy as she spoke, and she turned her head to see the sister and a red mist floating around her head. "Vat did you do?" She whispered.

"Guys, is this a code Green?" Came through the comms as Cassie tried to blink away the dizziness in her head.

"Thor! Status?" Steve came next as Wanda and Pietro disappeared from Cassie's field of vision.

"The girl tried to warp my mind. Take special care, I doubt a human could keep her at bay. Fortunately, I am mighty." Thor's voice was muffled by a louder, seemingly omnipresent voice.

"Joanna." Cassie twisted, the sing-song voice sending fear straight to her gut. The ship had been replaced by the lab she used to work in at Stark Tower. She looked down, her supersuit replaced by her old lab coat and a light blue blouse... and there he was, inky black hair, blue-green eyes, green and black armor, sitting on the counter between two bunsen burners on at their highest level. "Clinton, then? You replace _me_ , Asgardian royalty, the son of King Laufey of Jotunheim, with a circus freak?"

She took a step backward, which prompted Loki to jump down and walked toward her. "Loki, I-"

"Don't worry, Joanna. I'm not angry." He said, grabbing a fistful of her hair and pulling her into a kiss. She melted into it, his cold touch forcing shivers throughout her body. "You are _my_ queen, my Red Queen, and I know you love me. I know you love my touch." His long fingers came to her lab coat, pulling it down her arms to drop on the floor.

"That scepter didn't make you scream my name, did it? It didn't leave you dripping your juices down my chin or make you ride my cock like a wench in heat." He turned her, roughly, pushing her chest into the counter and bringing his hands around to unbutton her black work slacks, pushing them down her legs.

"Loki, don't-"

"I know your mind. I know you miss me, Joanna. You refuse to acknowledge it, but I can smell your lies, even the ones you tell yourself. I know how much you long to be in my arms again, how you miss being impaled upon me." His hand slid down her ass and between her legs, rubbing her lips through the thin satin of her panties. He tore the material away and stood, lining his cock up against her and lifting her hips to improve his angle as he rammed his hips forward. "You... are... mine. Only mine... I know your body... such that... I can make... you cum... without even touching... your little bundle of nerves." He hammered his hips forward, causing Cassie to whimper and claw at the slick granite counter top.

He was right. As his hands grabbed her shoulders to hold her steady, an orgasm rushed over her. "Oh, my god." She moaned.

He continued to fuck her past her orgasm, drawing the sensations out longer. "Yes, I am. Do well to remember it, Joanna."

Cassie was suddenly back on the ship, sprawled out on the floor, her body thrumming with arousal. She shuddered and stood. "Natasha, I could really use a lullaby." Tony's voice came over the comm.

"Well, that's not gonna happen. Not for a while. The whole team is down. You got no backup here." Clint answered.

"I'm out... out of it." Cassie whispered. "I can't provide a Brahm's but, do you need help, Stark?"

"Banner's in Johannesburg, I don't know how you'd get there in time. Help Barton corral the rest of the team. I'm calling in VERONICA."

"Good to hear your voice, Red." Clint came over the comms.

"You got a location on the rest of our team?" She wasn't in the mood for pleasantries.

"Cap was swaying in the stairwell, got no clue on the Thunder God."

"Got him." Cassie said, looking up the stairs to the left. She ran up them, coming to a stop in front of Steve. "Steve... Steve. Hey, come back. Come back." She said, snapping her fingers in front of him.

Steve barely moved, so Cassie bent her knees, putting her shoulder against his abdomen and popping up to throw him over her shoulder. "Cap's still out, I'm taking him back to the jet. Grab Widow and meet me there, Barton. We'll take on Thor together."

As she stomped onto the Quinjet, Steve weighing her down, Clint rushed up beside her. "Here, put him down over here." She dropped Steve unceremoniously on one of the jump seats, then rolled her shoulders back. "I'm impressed. Glad for the super strength, huh?"

"Right. Come on. Let's go wrangle an Asgardian." She said, trudging back down the ramp.

"Hey. Are you okay?" Clint asked, following her. "I know the Maximoff chick hit you."

"Clint, can we not? We've just had our asses completely handed to us. You and I are the only ones intact right now, and we've got a God to put on that jet."

"Okay, well... You're gonna tell me what she made you see, right? Later?"

"Sure." She responded, running back up the ramp onto the ship.

*********************************

Clint powered up the jet and flew out as soon as Banner and Stark made it on board. He tried to beckon Cassie to the copilot seat, but she shook her head and took her place on the floor next to the scientist. She didn't say anything or touch the man, just hung her head and listened to the sounds of the Quinjet, all the while wondering what the hell was wrong with her.

Maria's voice came from the cockpit. "The news is loving you guys. Nobody else is. There's been no official call for Banner's arrest but it's in the air."

 

"Stark Relief Foundation?" Tony asked.

"Already on the scene. How's the team?"

Cassie could almost feel Tony scan the jet with his eyes. "Everyone's... we took a hit. We'll shake it off."

_Well, that sounded optimistic._

"Well, for now, I'd stay in stealth mode and stay away from here."

 

"So, run and hide?"

"Until we can find Ultron, I don't have a lot else to offer."

"Neither do we." There was a moment where the screen clicked off, then Stark said, "Hey, do you wanna switch out?"

"No, I'm good. If you wanna get some kip, now's a good time, 'cause we're still a few hours out."

"A few hours from where?"

"A safe house."

Cassie watched Stark sit in one of the seats and look down at his phone, so she nodded at him and stood, walking to the cockpit to take the copilot seat. "I don't want to talk about it, now. Maybe never, but definitely not now." She said, quietly. Clint just nodded and reached his right hand out to pat her knee. "Thank you."

"Hey, secret shit is what I do. Speaking of, you remember, in Austria I told you about a farm I go to when I need to get my shit straight?"

Cassie nodded. "That's your safe house?"

"Yeah. And, uh, I'm not the only one who lives there." He whispered.

"What, you got a secret wife or something?" She whispered back, leaning over closer to him.

"No, nothing stupid like that, but... I have a brother, Barney. _He_ ' _s_ got a wife and kids. He's not always... stable and he's... not around a lot. So, I set her, my niece and nephew up with a stable home. Barney and I never got that, and she's a great woman, deserves it, so... Anyway, only Nat knows, so... Assuming Ultron hasn't found out about it, that's gonna be a surprise."

"Wait... Barney Barton... I know that name... Charles, right? Trick Shot."

"Uh, yeah. How do you know that?"

Cassie turned away from him and looked out the front of the jet. "Phil brought home files sometimes."

"I... remember seeing you snoop a couple times. You never did anything with them though."

"Curiosity. Always trying to learn."

***********

Cassie fell into a dreamless sleep, which was disturbed only when the Quinjet landed outside a farmhouse situated on a green plot of land. "Wow." She whispered, standing. "Home is green."

"Yeah." Clint said, dropping the ramp to let everyone walk out.

"What is this place?" Thor asked, stepping onto the porch.

"A safe house?" Tony said, questioningly.

"Let's hope." Barton muttered, opening the door for them. "Honey, I'm home." He called.

The brunette woman that walked in from the kitchen was very pregnant. She smiled at them. "Let your brother hear you call me 'honey', you'll have even more issues with each other than you already do."

Clint smiled. "Hi. Company. Sorry I didn't call first."

"Clint, it's your house. Your don't have to call ahead." She smiled brightly at the group. "Hey."

"She's clearly an agent of some kind." Tony mumbled to Thor.

"Gentlemen, Cass, this is my sister-in-law, Laura."

"I know all your names."

"Ooh, incoming." Barton said, pulling away from Laura and kneeling down as a boy and a girl ran into the living room.

"Uncle Clint!" The girl yelled, jumping up into his arms.

"Oh, she's been dying to tell you about this boy at school." Laura said.

The girl nodded, excited. "Do I _want_ to know about the boy at school?" He asked.

The girl jumped down, nodding as Stark said, "These are... smaller agents."

"There's a new boy at school, we share recess, and I'm the only one who can talk to him."

"Why's that?"

"'Cause he's deaf and I'm the only one who knows Sign." She said.

Clint smiled, proudly. "Very cool. Is he cute?" He spoke the words as he signed at her. The girl blushed fiercely and puffed her cheeks out. Clint laughed at her reaction, then signed. "Glad you are getting good practice."

At the look from Cassie, he shrugged. "I was kinda deaf for a while. SHIELD fixed me."

"By 'kinda deaf for a while' he means '80% hearing loss for most of his life'." Laura filled in.

"Did you bring Auntie Nat?" The girl interjected as Cassie gave an impressed look.

"Why don't you hug her and find out?" Natasha said, stepping forward. The girl rushed to her and hugged her tightly.

"Sorry for barging in on you." Steve apologized.

"Yeah, we would have called ahead, but we were busy not knowing you existed." Stark snarked.

"Yeah, well, Fury helped me set this up when I joined. He kept it off SHIELD's files, I'd like to keep it that way. I figure it's a good place to lay low."

"Well, Clint, we missed you." Laura said, with a smile.

"So, I see Barney made his way home." Natasha said, walking up and putting her hands on the woman's belly.

"Yeah. 'Bout 7 months ago."

"So... how's little Natasha, huh?" Natasha asked.

"She's... Nathaniel." Laura answered.

"Traitor." Natasha said, leaning down to speak directly at the baby in the woman's belly.

Cassie turned her head as Thor stalked out of the house and Steve followed. "You're Cassie, aren't you?" Laura asked. Cassie turned back to the woman and nodded. "Clint has told me a lot about you."

"Oh, that can't be good."

Laura laughed. "No, it's good, I promise. He couldn't tell me everything, you know, 'classified'." She did air quotes around the word. "...but when you disappeared, he went crazy with worry. He obsessed about finding you. He had all these maps that me and the kids weren't allowed to look at. He'd spend hours pouring over them."

Clint groaned and pulled a knife from his belt. He offered it to Natasha and tapped the back of his skull. "If you could just, please, right here."

"Oh, come on, Clint. I think it's cute. So, where was it that you actually ended up being?" Laura asked, rubbing her hands over her belly.

"Austria."

"Oh. Pretty."

Cassie smiled, awkwardly as her stomach growled. "You mind if I take over your kitchen, Mrs. Barton? I'm feeling a bit... completely famished."

"Oh, sure. I don't mind."

"I'm gonna grab a shower." Tony said.

"Kids' bathroom is upstairs, second door on the left." Clint informed, before following Cassie into the kitchen. "Hey. You all right?"

She opened the fridge and peered in. It was well stocked with produce and meats, 3 different kinds of fruit juice on the top shelf and a small drawer filled with Lunchables. A 24 pack of beer sat on the bottom shelf next to a case of ginger ale. "I wasn't ever... _that_ pregnant. She... looks huge." She whispered. She shook her head and shut the fridge. "Which way to town?"

"What do you mean? What do you need in town?"

"I'm gonna go buy some beer."

"There's beer in the fridge."

She smiled, slightly. "It's so cute that you think that's beer."

"What, you don't like Coors?" He asked, leaning against the oven.

"I have something against a beer that encourages you to drink it cold." Clint raised his eyebrow. "Come on, you've spent enough time in Europe to know that real beer should be warm or, at least, room temp. Why? Because cold dulls the natural flavors of hops and barley and if a beer wants you to drink it cold, they obviously don't want you to actually taste it."

She shrugged. "Farmland, USA, I might be able to find a sixer of Guinness at the 'Five and Dime'. Just point me in the right direction."

"A: It's a dry town. You'd have to go the next county over for a beer. 2: I've got whiskey in the cabinet if you really need a drink, and Charlie: There are a lot of people out there looking for us. You don't need to be going anywhere."

"I'm not an Avenger, not so far as the world knows, Clint. No one is gonna recognize me."

Clint rolled his eyes and switched on the TV set sitting on the counter. BBC World News flicked to life on the screen. "...mysterious young woman carrying Thor onto the Avengers' jet. We apologize for the poor quality of the video. It's from CCTV. It is not clear who this woman is, but what is clear is that she is definitely not human." A petite British newscaster said.

Her co-anchor nodded. "You have to imagine how heavy Thor is, and you can see on that video, she just carries him around like a sack filled with potatoes or flour or something. It's like it takes no effort fer her." The Scottish man said.

"Video's grainy. You can't tell that's me. Look, I'll put on a hoodie and glasses if it'll make you feel better, but I'm going into town and you can't stop me, Hawk. I mean, you're just a human." She said, before sighing and looking down. "I didn't mean for that to be... so rude. I'm sorry. I just... The Maximoff chick got to me and then that... I don't need reminding of _what_ I am. Your sister has some really nice bell peppers in there and I was gonna get some sausage, bratwurst maybe, make us some good ol' Austrian diner food for dinner. I think a hardy meal would help us a lot." She blinked back her tears and shook her head at herself.

"Can you drive?" Clint asked, softly.

Cassie nodded. "Phil taught me. I, also, know how to fly."

"He let you drive LOLA?"

She chuckled. "There was a time when he loved me more than that Corvette. I thought you were watching me. How'd you miss that?"

Clint shrugged. "I knew you weren't going to be doing any shady HYDRA stuff with Phil around, so when he came in, I'd take time off. At the beginning, I went home to Bobbi until I got confirmation that Coulson had a new mission. After she... the divorce, I got a cheap apartment in San Luis Obispo that I went to when Phil was around. Mostly just slept and pigged out on sandwiches. Oh, and played PlayStation."

"So, you missed the crash."

"You crashed LOLA?" He looked a mixture of mortified and amused.

"Yeah. First time I got her in the air. Phil was so angry, he couldn't even speak for like 20 minutes after he inspected the damage. Which wasn't a lot, really, just a cracked headlight." She smiled. "It was... 3 weeks before he let me behind the wheel again, but I never had any other problems. Got my license a few months before I left Cali... Don't really need it in New York. Anyway, closest beer-mart?"

"Why don't I just drive you?" He reached out and grabbed her hand.

"You need to be here. Natasha needs you. Laura and the kids haven't seen you since I've been back from Austria. I'll be fine and I could probably benefit from a little alone time. I deal better in seclusion, remember?"

"Last time you needed seclusion, I spent 2 months searching for you." He whispered.

"I promise I'll come back. Today, even." She smiled softly and pulled her hand back. "Come on, Hawkeye. Keys?"

Clint sighed and groped behind him, on the counter, for a set of keys. "Take the van. Laura won't mind."

"And where am I going?" She asked, taking the keys with the Planet Fitness key chain and looping them over her first finger.

"Dirt road, take a left on Sycamore, right onto SR107, 20 miles down there's a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Beer, sausages, all that. You better come back. If you don't, I'm gonna have to room with Stark and that'd be torture."

She nodded, looking toward the living room before going on her tiptoes to press her lips to his cheek. She walked past the Bartons and Natasha out of the house.


	15. Sausage with peppers

Cassie pulled the van into the parking lot of the Walmart and started at the building for a minute. "How is your first Avengers mission treating you, Joanna?" Loki's voice came from the passenger seat.

"You're not really there." She whispered, closing her eyes. She couldn't look at him, even a projection of him. After what she saw in Africa, she couldn't deal with that.

"True, but I am truly speaking to you. So easy to find when you open up your mind to me."

"I didn't do that. The witch did."

"Witch? I'll have to thank her, you've been practically begging to see me for hours."

Cassie shook her head. "No. This is not... I didn't call to you."

Loki laughed, a cruel sound that gripped her spine. "Joanna... it's perfectly understandable to miss me. With me, there is no doubt, just complete domination. You don't have to worry about who knows you're laying with whom. You don't have to worry about Stark's metal contraptions killing you. You just have to worry about me. And I was gentle last time."

"In Austria? Disguised as the priest who kept me from killing myself?"

"I wanted to see the fire in you! That place dulled you."

"That was the point! I didn't want to think, I didn't want to shine, I didn't want to blaze. I just wanted to be left alone to be. Just be. Exist without anyone paying any attention to me and somehow you and Clint both found me."

"You were suffocating in Austria. You were suffocating as Cassandra. You are _still_ barely pulling air into your lungs. You long for the freedom Joanna thrives upon."

She looked to her right, finally allowing herself to look at him. His eyes looked green in this light. "Look, I'm not going to lie... it'd be useless to try that on you. I had _fun_ with you. You let out a part of me that had been dying to breathe since SHIELD took me, and yes, consensual sex with a God is nothing to shake a stick at, but... I don't miss you. I don't want you. I don't even want to be around you. You killed my daughter."

"And gave you a son." He smiled softly and shook his head at her. "Do you know how I know you ____do____ want me around, free to see you as I please? You haven't told Thor what I did to Odin."

As the projection disappeared, Cassie looked at the instrument panel on the dash. Confusion washed over her. She'd found it amusing that the Allfather had been tricked by Loki and that Heimdall, who sees pretty much everything, hadn't seen it. She knew that she'd been too desperate to leave Playground when she woke up, but why hadn't she said anything since she'd been back? She hadn't forgotten: she just hadn't mentioned it. "Just means I'm nuts, not that I want you to drop in unannounced." She muttered, getting out of the van and walking toward the store.

"Talking to yourself already, Campbell? That's a sign of poor fortitude." A familiar voice said as she crossed the double doors.

She turned to the vending area and blanched at the sight of Nick Fury, dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt and wearing dark sunglasses, drinking a Coke. "Director Fury."

"You aren't SHIELD and I ain't in charge anymore." He said, stepping toward her.

"I-I know, sir. I, uh, just thought... After the way I spoke to you last time... respect is due."

"You didn't say anything that wasn't true, Cassie. I am old and I have bad depth perception."

She couldn't help the smile that crossed her face at the use of her chosen name. "But you have so many years of spycraft under your belt."

"And you can carry Thor around as dead weight. Girl, you woulda kicked my ass."

Cassie smiled. "So, what are you doing here?"

"I figured Barton would bring you to the farmstead. Safe place, off the grid. I showed up right as you were pulling onto the main road, followed you. I came in here to get a drink while you argued with yourself in the van." Cassie looked down. "I know the Maximoff girl got you, made you see things. Loki?"

Tears came to her eyes as she just nodded, dumbly. Fury put his hand on her shoulder and waited for her to look at him. When she did, he smiled. "You're the only one who got hit by that chick and wasn't completely down for the count. Your teammates, who include the strongest woman I've ever met and a Viking God, had to extracted by _you_."

"Guess I have better fortitude than you think."

"Definitely better than _yo_ _u_ think. You know... Maria Hill sends me reports. _"_

"About me?"

"Among other things. She said you're putting a lot of effort in. You spend most of your free time training. Says you're almost obsessional about being an asset."

"Just don't wanna get anyone killed because I can't handle myself in a combat situation. Fat lot of good I did against Ultron. Got shot in the back by one of Tony's legionnaires before I could touch him. Feel kinda useless."

"Useless?"

"What do I add? I mean, the Avengers already have a revved-up super soldier and an acrobatic weapons expert. I'm like a shitty knockoff version of both of them. I don't have anything..."

"You know, doubt is a perfectly normal, healthy thing, that you need to get the hell over, right now. This is not the time for it. Even if you were a shitty knockoff, you could put down some robots. You are more in control of yourself than some of the strongest-willed motherfuckers I have ever met, so pull your head up and move past whatever that witch made you see."

Cassie chuckled and turned, grabbing a hand basket as she headed further into store. "Wow."

"What?" Fury asked, keeping pace with her.

"No, it's just... I finally understand why you were in charge for so long."

"Why's that?"

"There is something oddly inspiring about a one-eyed man yelling at you to get your shit together." She stopped in front of the sausages and stared at them. "Guess I couldn't expect more than Johnsonville at a Wal-mart. Beer brats, I guess. And beer." She dropped 3 packs of sausages into the basket and walked toward the beer aisle.

"So, how's Phil doing?"

"Don't think Barton would be very happy about you asking after your ex, do you?"

"You're kidding me." Cassie turned to him. "Hill knows?"

"Did you forget that you're working with spies? That you're sleeping with one? You remember what that entails."

"Oh, come on, Nick. It was totally different with Phil. We weren't _trying_ to keep any secrets. It was the most honest relationship Phil had ever been in. He didn't have to hide anything from me. I mean, he did... some." She shook her head and grabbed a box of Guinness. "Clint and I just want something that's ours, you know? We don't want everyone talking and speculating and... being jealous."

"Jealous? You're talking about Steve?"

"I'm talking about Steve." She confirmed. "And Natalia and Phil. Also, there's a deep-seated fear that Mockingbird is still in love with him and she's gonna destroy me over this."

"Mockingbird? Natalia? You haven't just been studying your Ops manual, have you?"

"I started in on those SHIELD files while I was still in Austria. Everything I could learn would better my chances of evasion. Once I got back, it was more 'learn everything I can so that I can survive longer'." She started toward the bakery and stood in front of the racks. "Commercial American bakery's nuzing like Hohenheims bakery. Oh, vell." She grabbed several bags of rolls and headed for the registers.

"Are you coming back to the farm, Nick?"

"Yeah. I'll be right behind you. When you get inside, have the lovely Mrs. Barton send Stark to the barn."

"Yes, sir."

************

As Cassie walked across the grass toward the house, she smiled at Steve and Tony, who were chopping wood in the front. "Glad you're working up an appetite. I'm making lunch."

"Austrian diner food, right? Barton might've mentioned." Tony brought his ax down on one of the logs.

Cassie nodded and jogged inside, dropping the plastic bags on the counter. Clint was beside her almost immediately, he was freshly showered, smelled like a forest. "Hey, you made it back!"

"Today, even. Wanna help me cook?"

"Uncle Clint."

"Yeah, Li?" The little girl waited, a bit impatiently, for Clint to stop looking at Cassie. As soon as his eyes fell on the girl, she started to sign. Cassie watched it in her peripheral vision as she pulled a knife from a knife block and ran soap and water over it. "Yep... I think so... " Clint signed as he spoke his responses to her slightly fumbled sign language. The girl seemed frustrated with a word and resorted to signing each letter.

"Wait, who's Mary?" Cassie asked, slicing through the white onion she picked.

Clint turned to her with an eyebrow raised. "You know Sign?"

"Just the alphabet. There was an accident on 107, so traffic slowed enough for me to pull it up on my phone."

"And you learned ASL alpha in the few minutes you were stuck in traffic?"

"Like it's hard?"

"And now you're quoting Legally Blond at me?"

Cassie grabbed a red pepper and a green one from the fridge. "Never seen it."

He chuckled and turned to the girl. "Lila, we'll continue this conversation later, when there's no one around to eavesdrop."

"I weren't dropping no eaves, Mr. Barton, sir. I was just making lunch." She said, in her best Samwise Gamgee impression.

Lila nodded and ran out of the room as Cassie started slicing the peppers. "It's a little early in the relationship for your family to be pushing us down the aisle, don't'cha think?" She asked, quietly.

"Eh, she wants a cousin. Thought you didn't Sign?"

"I caught the double Rs in 'marry', and she pointed at us. Not hard to follow."

"She likes you." Clint grabbed a slice of bell pepper from the cutting board and bit it in half. "And she knows I do, too. She just wants me to be happy, that's all."

"Uh-huh. Hey, Laura." Cassie called out. The brunette woman waddled in, hand secured over her belly. "Nick Fury is in your barn. He requests an audience with Mr. Stark, but Tony isn't one to just do what someone asks. Can you figure out a way to get Tony into the barn, please?"

"Yeah, I think I can do that." She said with a smile.

"Grab the sausages out of the bag for me and grab a pan, cast-iron if you have it, and a roasting pan."

"Roasting pan?"

"Every oven comes with one, Clint. Usually it's a two piece thing, slots in the top to catch drippings in the bottom."

"Oh, that thing. Gotcha." Clint said, digging into a low cabinet by the fridge to pull out a large roasting pan. He put out on the stove before pulling out a cast-iron skillet and handing it to her.

"Nice. Okay. Oil?"

"In the glass squeezy thing, there." Count said, pointing to the counter.

"So articulate, Hawk."

"What can I say? Obviously not much."

"Then, why do you talk so much?" Cassie said, clicking the burner on under the skillet.

"Hoping to say something to turn you red, again. It's a good look."

"Ja, mein Vater seemed to think so."

"Ich finde dich süß when you mix up your languages." Cassie felt her cheeks heat up. "There's her color." He whispered, leaning into her.

Her eyes flicked towards the living room. "Back off, Hawk. This isn't the time." She said, pouring oil into the skillet. Clint leaned back away again, but she could feel his eyes on her. "Put the sausages on the roasting pan. Single layer, like you know what you're doing." She said, grabbing the peppers and onions putting them into the skillet.

Cassie had the oven open, flipping the sausages over when Tony stomped into the house, Steve and Nick following behind. "Are you going to be eating with us, Nick? We've got plenty."

"I've heard good things about your cookin', Miss Campbell. It was one of the things Coulson felt comfortable braggin' on you about."

"I'll take that as a 'yes'." She said, smiling as she closed the oven door.

"So... what's the thinking, Fury?" Banner asked as Lila ran into the dining room to hand Natasha a watercolor picture.

"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time. My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of Vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing." Nick said, walking around to the sink to pour himself a glass of water.

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked, leaning against the wall.

"Ah. He's easy to track, he's everywhere. Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans, though."

"He still going after launch codes?" Tony asked, throwing darts at a board on the wall.

"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway." Nick answered.

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare."

"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that." Nick said, starting to cut the rolls Cassie bought for the sandwiches.

"NEXUS?" Steve and Cassie asked.

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo. Every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on Earth." Banner responded.

"So, what'd they say?" Clint asked, examining the fletching of one the darts.

"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed."

"By whom?" Tony asked, as Clint threw his darts at the board. Tony looked at him, exasperated as Clint shrugged, before pulling all three darts from the bulls-eye.

"Parties unknown."

"Do we have an ally?" Natasha asked.

"Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing. Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is."

"I might need to visit Oslo, find our 'unknown'." Tony said,

"Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that." Natasha grumbled as Nick finished cutting the bread.

"I do. I have you. Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream up.  Here we all are, back on Earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission and whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All this, laid in a grave. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard." Nick said, sitting down with his water as Cassie pulled the sausages out.

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk." Natasha teased.

"You know what, Romanoff?" Steve started, faux threateningly. Natasha just smirked.

"So, what does he want?" Nick asked.

Steve looked around as Clint came to sit at the table. "To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies."

"Person bodies." Tony responded. "The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it."

Banner walked forward and examined Lila's picture. Natasha looked between the scientists. "When you two programed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed."

"They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve."

"How?" Nick asked as he took a drink of his water.

"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"

Cassie placed a platter full of sausage and pepper sandwiches on the table and sat next to Natasha. "So, what? Ultron is going to have Helen Cho make him a... a better body?" Everyone looked around at each other, nervously. "Guess we should eat." She reached forward and grabbed a sandwich, but she suddenly didn't feel very hungry.

Clint stood, grabbing a bottle of Guinness and handing it to her. "Anyone else? Might not have another chance."

"Don't talk like that." Natasha said, but she put her hand out for a beer.

************************

Steve walked into the living room, finishing suiting up. "I'll take Natasha and Clint."

"All right. Strictly recon. I'll hit the NEXUS. I'll join you as soon as I can." Tony said, tapping at his wrist.

"If Ultron is really building a body..." Steve started.

"He'll be more powerful than any of us. Maybe _all_ of us. An android designed by a robot."

"You know, I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science ever created was me." Steve mused.

"I'll drop Banner off at the Tower. Do you mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?" Fury asked.

"She's all yours, _apparently._ What are _you_ gonna do?"

"I don't know. Something dramatic, I hope." Nick said, walking out of the house.

"What about me?" Cassie asked, walking up to Steve and Tony.

"Cass..." Steve started.

"No. Don't even _think_ about leaving me behind. I may be pretty new to this whole 'superhero' thing and I didn't help much against Ultron in New York, but I've got more will, more _fortitude_ than any of you. I pulled _myself_ out of that fugue state..." **_*Or was the vision simply over*_** She shook away Loki's voice in her head and kept going. "...and I didn't sulk around about what I saw in that vision. I pulled myself together and then I carried _your_ star-spangled ass off that ship. And then, I went back for Thor and carried _his_ ass out. An action, by the way, that outted me as a superhero to the international news media."

She threw her hands up in exasperation. "Which is great, because HYDRA is still looking for their lost legacy and Loki is still looking for his queen, so it's awesome to broadcast my whereabouts. And even with all that, with my worst fears playing in my head on repeat since that witch touched me, I still want to help, because that's what I signed up for. As soon as I decided 'Avenger' would look good on my resume, I signed up to put away my shit and focus on everyone else's. So, tell me, _boss_ , where do you need me?"

Steve looked around, then cleared his throat. "Stark?"

"Ever been to Norway, blondie?" Stark asked.

"No, sir." She answered, standing straight.

"It's good. You'll love it. Might need some muscle, anyway. Can't wear the suit everywhere. Go grab yours." Tony ordered.

Cassie nodded and rushed for the room where she'd changed before heading to the store. Clint followed, closing the door behind him as she pulled her super suit off the floor. "Not the way I pictured the first time you grabbed your clothes off of my floor." He joked.

She turned to him and smiled, slightly. "Be careful. Please. Be careful."

"It's a milk run, babe." Clint stepped forward and pushed her hair out of her face.

"No. My trip to the NEXUS is a milk run. Tony's only taking me because I threw a fit. Ultron _might_ _be_ in Seoul. I mean, he's everywhere. So, he's probably gonna be there... with the Maximoffs. Clint... Wanda, she's..."

"I know, Cassie."

"You don't. I saw-"

"Loki. I know. And you liked it, right? That's why you're all messed up." Cassie blinked back tears. "You remember when we first met? Took you for a drink to celebrate and mourn? I know what you're missing."

"It's not missing the mindlessness, Clint. I mean, that's part of it, but... Joanna, _I_ wanted to... to be with him. I had sex with him. I enjoyed it, _being_ with him."

"That's your _greatest_ fear? That you might've enjoyed sleeping with a demigod?" Clint chuckled. "He's a thousand years old and strong enough to give it to you good. I might've even liked screwing him." He joked.

"Clint... why are you so understanding?" She whispered.

"I've had a long life. Done a lot of bad, had a lot of bad done to me. I focus on intentions, mostly. And your intentions are good, even when you're Joanna. Your intentions as Cassie are... good, right?"

"You're amazing."

"Nah. I've just gotten good at hiding the un-mazing parts of me." Clint brushed his lips against hers. "I'll be safe if you will."

"I promise." She said, wrapping her arms around his neck to pull him into a deeper kiss. Her super suit rubbed against his cheek as their tongues pushed against each other.

"Where's my lab tech?!" Tony called up the stairs.

Cassie pulled away, balling her clothes up in her hands. "Hold your water, Stark, I'm comin'." She opened the door and bounded down the stairs, three at a time.

"You had plenty of time for that while the rest of us were showering. You chose to shop." Tony said.

"Shut up." She groaned. _*Everybody knows.*_

"Come on." Tony said, walking out of the house.


	16. Vision

Cassie looked over at Tony as they started through security at NEXUS. "Thank you."

"What?"

"For bringing me. For not leaving me at the farm with... Nothing against her, a couple years ago I wanted what she has, but I can't... imagine just staying home and raising kids and helping with homework and..." She lost her direction as a guard ran a metal detector down her body. "The housewife thing, back when I was with Phil, that was the goal, but... it's-"

"Boring. _So_ boring. I wouldn't want that for you. Actually, if you tried to choose that life now, Blondie, I'd tell HYDRA where you are. That ain't you and I'd rather you become Junior again than go full Stepford." Tony said, crossing to the other side of security. "Steve shouldn't have tried to leave you behind. You're of better use in Korea. Of course, his bus was pretty full with your boyfriend and his girlfriend, you know."

"Nat isn't-"

"If you think they've never bumped uglies, you're deluded." Tony said, walking away as Cassie's face fell.

"That's a great strategy, Tony. Put your bodyguard into a self-conscious spiral of inadequacy. Like the gorgeous, tall, gymnast ex-wife wasn't bad enough."

"What inadequacy? You think you're something less than Romanoff?"

Cassie walked up next to him. "Yeah. How could I possibly feel like less of a woman when compared to a legit ballerina-turned-assassin-turned-spy? She's also an amazing hacker and have you seen what she wears? I'd never be able to pull off the skintight clothes and-"

"But that's not your thing." Stark interrupted, turning and grabbing her shoulder and forcing her to look up at him. "That's _never_ been your thing. When Barton was creepin' on you through a scope from the building across the street, you weren't doing acrobatics or wearing skintight anything. You were just being you. You don't need to compete with the ex-wife, or Nat... well, maybe Nat. She's very _present_ in his life." 

"You're not helping, Tony." She sighed, deeply. "I should've just kept to the 'no dating' thing."

"Would've been the smart move." Tony said, walking toward a guarded area. He smiled at the guards. "Tony Stark, Cassie Campbell. We need access."

The guards nodded and moved out of the way. A blond woman walked up. "Tony. How are you?"

"I'm good. This is Cassie, my new bodyguard." Tony said, prompting a look of disbelief from the tech. "She's stronger than she looks."

"Nice to meet you."

Cassie nodded as Tony walked to a set of computers and started to type. "A hacker who's faster than Ultron? He could be anywhere. And as this is the center of everything, I'm just a guy looking for a needle in the world's biggest haystack."

"How do you find it?" The tech asked.

"Pretty simple. You bring a magnet." Cassie sighed as he began an electronic attack on the Pentagon. "Oh, I'm decrypting nuclear codes and you don't want me to." He sang. "Come and get me." 

"And if this force is malevolent?" Cassie asked. "We might be-"

"Found it!" Stark interrupted, tapping furiously at the keyboards. "Now, just to... wait a second. That looks familiar. And so does..." 

"What is it?"

"Not what..." He said, a new window popping up on the right screen. "Who." 

"Is that..." A familiar set of orange programming came up on the screen. "Jarvis!" 

"Hello, Miss Campbell."

"That's amazing. He's the one who's been holding Ultron off?"

"Of course, he was. This is Jarvis. Greatest program ever created."

"Thank you, sir."

"Let's get back to the Tower." Tony said, pulling out his tablet and uploading Jarvis to it. 

**********************

Cassie walked in with Tony as Clint tried to pry the cradle open. "Anything on Nat?" Banner asked, walking up wringing his hands, worriedly.

"We haven't heard." Cassie answered.

"But she's alive, or Ultron'd be rubbing our faces in it." Tony continued, walking up to the cradle as Clint hopped off of it.

"This is sealed tight." 

"We're gonna need to access the program, break it down from within." Banner said, running his hand along the top of the cradle.

"Hm. Any chance Natasha might leave you a message, outside the internet? Old-school spy stuff?" Tony asked turning to Clint.

"There's some nets I can cast. Yeah. I'll find her." Clint said, heading downstairs.

Cassie walked to the cradle, running her hand along the metal, as well. "I can work on tissue degeneration." Bruce started. "If you can fry whatever operational system Cho implanted."

"Yeah, about that." Stark started prompting Cassie and Banner to turn to him.

"No." Bruce said, backing away.

"You have to trust me." Tony stepped forward.

"Kinda don't."

"Our ally? The guy protecting the military's nuclear codes? I found him." Tony said, flicking his tablet to bring up a hologram of Jarvis' consciousness. 

"Hello, Dr. Banner." 

"Ultron didn't go after Jarvis 'cause he was angry. He attacked him because he was scared of what he can do. So, Jarvis went underground. Okay? Scattered, dumped his memory, but not his protocols. He didn't even know he was in there, until I pieced him together."

"So, you want me to help you put Jarvis into this thing?" 

"No, of course not! I want to help _you_ put Jarvis in this thing. Cass'll help any way she can. We can count on her." Banner shook his head while Cassie looked down at the cradle, dumbly. "We're out of my field here. You know bio-organics better than anyone."

"And you just assume that Jarvis' operational matrix can beat Ultron's?"

"Jarvis _has_ been beating him. From the inside without knowing it." Tony said, staring across the cradle at Banner.

"This is an opportunity." Cassie said, finally coming to her senses and looking up from the cradle. "We can create Ultron's perfect self."

"Without the homicidal glitches he thinks are his winning personality, exactly. We have to." Tony finished.

"I believe it's worth a go." Jarvis said.

Banner scratched his head. "I'm in a loop! I'm caught in a time loop. This is exactly where it all went wrong."

"I know, I know. I know what everyone's going to say, but they're already saying it. We're mad scientists." Tony walked up, grasping Banner's shoulder. "We're monsters, buddy. You and Cassie actually are. You gotta own it. Make a stand." Banner shook his head as Tony pressured him.

"It's not a loop, Bruce. It's the end of the line." Cassie said, looking around Tony at him.

Banner looked down, then over at the cradle. "This is a bad idea."

"Unfortunately, it's the best one we have." She said, trying to force her lips to smile, but failing.

"Okay. Let's do this. Cassie, grab those cables, we're gonna have to connect the cradle to the computer in order to upload Jarvis into the synthetic body." Banner said.

******************

"This framework is not compatible." Tony said, tapping away on the computer.

"The genetic coding tower's at 97%. You have got to upload that schematic in the next three minutes." 

Cassie moved to stand in front of Bruce as Steve and the Maximoffs walked into lab. "I'm gonna say this once." Steve commanded.

"How 'bout 'nonce'?"

"Shut it down." Cap demanded.

"Nope, not gonna happen." Tony spat back.

"You don't know what you're doing." Steve said.

"And you do? _She's_ not in your head?" Bruce gestured at the witch.

"I know you're angry." She said, walking around to Steve's side.

"Oh, we're way past that. I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade." 

"I don't even have to _worry_ about that." Cassie added.

"Banner, after everything that's happened..." Steve started.

"That's nothing compared to what's coming!" Tony shouted. 

"You don't know what's in there!" Wanda shouted back.

"This isn't a game!" Rogers shouted.

"The creature..." Wanda began as her twin ran around the lab, destroying and disconnecting everything. 

"No, no. Go on. You were saying?" He threw the cables on the ground and looked around the lab. 

A bullet came up through the glass, causing Pietro to fall through. Wanda called his name as Cassie looked down the hole at Clint, who stepped on the mutant and smiled. "What? You didn't see that coming?"

The computer beeped at Stark, so he started tapping at the keyboard again. "I'm rerouting the upload." Steve pulled his hand back and threw his shield at the computer and Tony, who blasted him with a repulsor beam and called the rest of his suit. 

Banner grabbed Wanda from behind as Cassie moved to grab Steve's shield. "Go ahead, piss me off." Banner urged as Clint ran up the stairs.

Steve jumped at Tony, intent on punching the genius, but flew backwards as another repulsor beam hit him. Tony flew backward, too, as Cassie ran for the computer. "Reroute the upload." She whispered to herself in hopes that she could figure out how to do that. She was never that great with computers. Wanda pulled herself from Banner's arms in the confusion and used her 'magic' to hit him back away from her. Cassie's eyes fell on Thor as he ran into the room and jumped on top of the cradle, calling forth a lightning bolt to hit it. **Warning: Power Overload** came across the screen in front of her as the upload rapidly finished. The cradle exploded open, sending Thor flying backward and everyone else to shield their eyes.

A look of awe and fear crossed everyone's faces as the red synthetic man jumped out of the cradle and looked around as he stood. He jumped at Thor, who threw him out the lab window to the living area below.  He stopped just short of the glass on the outside of the building, flying in front of it and looking out at the city. Thor followed him down, as did Cap and Cassie. Thor put a hand up to stop Steve getting closer. His skin changed from almost completely red to red and green as he turned and flew to stand next to Thor in the living room. "I'm sorry, that was... odd." Jarvis' voice came out of the android. "Thank you." He addressed Thor. As he examined the Asgardian, a yellow cape appeared behind him.

"Thor. You helped create this?" Steve asked.

"I've had a vision. A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life and at its center is that." Thor pointed to the android's forehead. 

"The gem?" Cassie asked, stepping forward. 

"It's the Mind Stone, Lady Cassie. It's one of six Infinity Stones. The greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities."

"Then, why would you bring it to..." 

"Because Stark is right." 

"Oh, it's definitely the end times." Banner said, under his breath.

"We were supporting this, remember?" Cassie put her hand on his shoulder.

"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron." Thor continued.

"Not alone." The android added.

"Why does your 'vision' sound like Jarvis?"

"We... we reconfigured Jarvis' matrix to create something new." Tony answered, walking toward the android.

"I think I've had my fill of new." 

"Then, go back to sleep." Cassie responded, earning her a hurt look from the captain.

"You think I'm a child of Ultron." Vision said.

"You're not?"

"I'm not Ultron. I am not Jarvis. I am... I am." He concluded.

"I looked in your head... and saw annihilation." Wanda accused, walking forward.

"Look again." 

Clint scoffed. "Yeah. Her seal of approval means jack to me."

"Their powers, the horrors in our heads, Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone. And they're nothing compared to what it can unleash. But with it on our side..." Thor started.

"Is it?" Cassie asked.

"Are you? On our side." Steve clarified.

"I don't think it's that simple." The vision answered.

"Well, it better get real simple, real soon." Clint threatened. 

"I am on the side of life. Ultron isn't. He will end it all." 

"What's he waiting for?" Tony asked.

"You." 

"Where?" Bruce asked.

"Sokovia." Clint answered. "He's got Nat there, too." 

"If we're wrong about you..." Bruce started, walking forward with his hands clasps. "If you're the monster that Ultron made you to be..."

"What will you do?" Vision looked around at the group. The silent 'We will kill you' vibe spoke its words. He started to pace, walking past Banner. "I don't want to kill Ultron. He's unique, and he's in pain. But that pain will roll over the Earth, so he must be destroyed. Every form he's built, every trace of his presence on the 'net. We have to act now. And not one of us can do it without the others. Maybe I am a monster." He looked down at his hands. "I don't think I'd know if I were one. I'm not what you are, and not what you intended. So, there may be no way to make you trust me. But we need to go." He turned, offering Mjolnir to Thor. The Avengers' eyes focused on the hammer and Vision's lack of strain. 

"Holy shit." Cassie scoffed as Thor took the hammer and Vision walked away.

"Right." Thor said, before walking up and patting Tony's shoulder. "Well done." 

"Three minutes. Get what you need." Steve ordered.

"Yes, boss." Cassie said, running for the elevator. 

"You going for guns?" Clint called after her. 

"I'm going for anything I can get my hands on." She called back.


	17. Goodbye Sokovia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last Chapter of Bottle! 
> 
> Cassie and the Marvel gang will return in a sequel and maybe a fluff piece or two. Things'll get better for her, and then they'll get worse. Got it all planned out!

Cassie sat in a jump seat as they flew into Sokovia. Pietro stared down at her. "You've really never killed anyone?"

A flash of a lab hit her brain, but she shook it off. "No. Never." The words came out with a slight accent. 

"What are you called?" Pietro asked.

Cassie chuckled. "I've had many names. Vierhundert Zweiundfünfzig, Junior, Joanna, Cassie, Alex, Red Queen. 'Cassie' is my preference."

"Why do you speak with an accent when you talk to us, but not to the Avengers?" Wanda asked, from her seat next to Cassie.

"Because you're in my head, I think. Because you can hear the truth of my thoughts, which are coming in more and more as German. Why do you think that is?"

"You have... hidden pieces that are starting to leak." Wanda said, staring uncomfortably into Cassie's eyes.

"I was afraid you'd say something like that."

" _This_ is your fear. That the hidden pieces might come out. Why did you see the man in the armor?" Cassie looked away. "You _made_ yourself see him. How?"

"He is a fear. He is a painful memory and a future fear. But he's one that I know I can deal with. I thought of him as soon as I saw your... red electric mist. I couldn't let you show me the other thing."

"You are very strong." Pietro mused. "Even I can't hold her back from my mind."

"Neither could I. I just pushed the influence a little."

"I can't do _that_."

"No one can. I mean, that I've met." Wanda said.

"I'm sure it's not a big deal. I just have good fortitude. Strong will of mind." Cassie looked away as she realized Clint was listening.

"It is big deal." Wanda insisted, staring at her in that uncomfortable intense way again. "You don't want-"

"Wanda." Cassie interrupted, her voice strong and clear, with no sign of the accent. "I've had people in my head. You aren't the first and you probably won't be the last, the way my life goes. If I were not able to control, even a little bit, of what my brain does in these situations, I would have gone mad instead of going to Austria."

"You had no control when you were a child. They were completely in-"

"I don't want to hear it, I don't want to know." Cassie whispered, standing. "We're about to go into a huge, deadly fight and I can't have my attention fractured."

"You're afraid it will break you, if you know." Wanda whispered.

"It would."

**********************

Steve stood near the cockpit of the jet as everyone finished their final prep before the fight. "Ultron knows we're coming. Odds are we'll be riding into heavy fire, and that's what we signed up for." He smiled slightly at Cassie. "But the people of Sokovia, they didn't. So our priority is getting them out. All they want is to live their lives in peace, and that's not going to happen today. But we can do our best to protect them. And we can get the job done, and find out what Ultron's been building. We find Romanoff, and we clear the field. Keep the fight between us. Ultron thinks we're monsters and we're what's wrong with the world. This isn't just about beating him. It's about whether he's right."

"Orders?" Clint asked.

"Pietro is our warning system. He can make it around Novi Grad to quickly to make sure those in charge get the evac started."

"I will get people started leaving. I don't how many I can reach at one time, I've never tried, but... as many as I can." Wanda offered.

"Clint, take the high ground, keep us appraised of movements around the city. Thor, you take Bruce to the fortress where Natasha is being held. Banner finds Nat, you find out what he's building. Vision, you follow Tony and burn Ultron's ties to the internet so he can't run. Cassie, until such a time as you are needed elsewhere, you work on getting people out of the city, and take down as many Ultrons as possible. Okay?"

Cassie smiled, slightly. "Well, it's nothing special, but at least you aren't trying to leave me behind this time." She tightened the holster belt around her waist and stepped toward the door. "Let's go kick some robot ass."

"Language." Steve said, with a smile.

"You want lift?" Pietro asked, picking Cassie up and running without waiting for an answer. He came to a stop and dropped her off on the other side of the bridge into Novi Grad. "Not too fast for you?"

She laughed. "Pietro... glad you're on our side now. Get to the Polizeistation."

"Good to be a good guy, huh?"

"What, you didn't see that coming, Pietro?" She smirked and ran for the far buildings. 

*********************************

The robots were easy. A few well-placed bullets, a hit to the processor with a heavy baton, a knife in the same locale... one time just a well-executed kick. No, it was when the landscape started to hover higher and higher that Cassie had a problem. "How are we supposed to save the people from a flying city?!" She shouted at the Ultron closest to her, before ripping its head off.

"Do you see? The beauty of it, the inevitability. You rise, only to fall." Ultron's voice answered her from a robot clawing its way to her from underground. "You, Avengers, you are my meteor, my swift and terrible sword and the earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal." Cassie stomped on its head, growling at the implication. 

"I'm not a fucking meteor. Spent my whole life trying to avoid causing-" She mumble to herself, grabbing an Ultron and ripping it's arm off. She bashed it into the robot's head repeatedly. 

"Cap, you got incoming." Stark said, over comms. 

**"** Incoming already came in." Steve groaned. "Stark, you worry about bringing the city back down safely. The rest of us have one job: tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt 'em back. You get killed, walk it off."

"Funny." Pietro was suddenly right next to her, pulling a robot to pieces. "Is Captain America always so funny?"

"Only in a fight. How you doin'?" Cassie asked, breathlessly. 

"Better than you. You're bleeding."

"I'm fine. Not dead yet. How are you not bleeding?"

"Too fast to bleed. None of them can see me coming."

Cassie laughed. "Okay. Sounds good. I'm going to the bridge. Sounds like they need a bit of help there. Find Wanda, meet me there?"

Pietro gave a small salute and disappeared. A few moments later, Barton came over the comms. "All right. We're all clear here." 

"We are not clear!" Steve responded. "We are very not clear!"

"All right. Coming to you." 

"I'm halfway there!" Cassie said, picking up her pace. Cassie jumped onto the back of an Ultron and plunged her knife into its processor as Natasha and Steve destroyed several over by the bridge. "Welcome to the fight, Natalia. How was your downtime?" 

"Cramped and cold. Just like I like it." Nat answered, smirking a little as they finished off the last Ultron in their area.

"The next wave's gonna hit any minute. What have you got, Stark?" Steve asked, stalking through the city.

"Well, nothing great. Maybe a way to blow up the city. That'll keep it from impacting the surface. If you guys can get clear." Stark came over their earpieces.

"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan."

"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're going to have to make a choice." 

"Cap, these people are going nowhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock..." Natasha started as the three of them looked out at the clouds, creating a thick fog.

"Not 'til everyone's safe." Steve insisted.

"Everyone up here versus everyone down there?" Natasha pushed. "There's no math there."

"I hate to agree, but this is thousands versus billions. Literally." Cassie whispered.

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it." 

"I didn't say we should leave." Steve took a deep breath as he turned to Romanoff, who just nodded to confirm she was saying what he thought she was. "There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?"

"Glad you like the view, Romanoff. It's about to get better." Nick Fury's voice came through their comms. Cassie laughed, excitedly, as a helicarrier broke through the clouds. "Nice, right? I pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but she'll do."

"Fury, you son of a bitch." Steve said, with a smile.

"Ooh! You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

"Not since the 40s, he doesn't." Cassie wrapped her arms around Nat and Steve and jumped down, excitedly as Pietro showed up in front of them.

"This is SHIELD?" 

"This is what SHIELD's supposed to be." Steve answered.

"This is not so bad."

"Let's load 'em up." Steve said, rushing to grab Sokovian citizens. 

"You know, this might not end horribly, after all." Pietro said, to Cassie as she rushed for a building full of people.

"Don't say things like that. As soon as you start being optimistic, things go bad."

"Oh, what can go bad now?" Pietro asked, before disappearing.

"So much." Ultron said, dropping down behind Cassie, grabbing her and flying away. He dropped her on top of a building and examined her. "You're the _HYDRA_ one, right?"

"I'm not-"

"Made by HYDRA in 1989. Trained by that horrid Strucker character. Honestly, anyone who wanted to know about the Avengers need only look to you, their latest recruit. The wolf in sheep's linen."

"What? What are you- you're making less sense than usual."

"You really _think_ you're a righteous woman? How sad for you. You're more tangled in their strings than I ever was. Assuming you make it to that battlecarrier, ask your friend Fury about Operation Playtime Distortion. I think it'll change your life." Ultron said, before flying away, leaving her on the top of the building.

"Playtime dis- what?" She mumbled to herself as she grabbed an electric cable and used it to abseil down the building. 

"Thor, I got a plan!" Stark said when she was about halfway down the building.

"We're out of time. They're coming for the core." Thor responded.

"Rhodey, get the rest of the people on board that carrier."

"On it." 

"Avengers, time to work for a living." 

"Screw you, Stark. Your suit and your computer do all your work." Cassie said as she got to the bottom of the building and started running for the church. 

"I'll buy you a drink when we get out of this." Stark said. "Romanoff? You and Banner better not be playing hide the zucchini." 

"Relax, Shell-head. Not all of us can fly." 

"Thank you, Nat!" Cassie said, running up to the church as Natasha crashed a truck into the fence around the perimeter. 

"What's the drill?" Natasha asked.

"This is the drill. If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose." 

Hulk jumped into the church as Ultron flew closer. "Is that the best you can do?!" Thor shouted. Ultron just lifted his left hand and a swarm of silver entered their vision.

"You had to ask." Steve said, sarcastically. 

"This is the best I can do." Ultron answered. 

"If they're all here, then they aren't there, so... let's do this." Cassie whispered.

"This is exactly what I wanted. All of you against all of me. How could you possibly hope to stop me?"

"Well, like the old man said. Together." Tony said, looking toward Steve. 

Hulk shouted, sending a chill down Cassie's spine that readied her for the fight, as Ultrons ran and flew at them, full force. She pulled her knife with her right hand and a baton with her left and went to work, feeling alive and right as she rained destruction upon Ultron. 'Ask about Operation Playtime Distortion', rang through her mind over and over as she stomped and beat and stabbed the robots. As the primary Ultron was lasered down in the ruined churchyard, Cassie beat another one's head into the rubble. Clint put his hand on her shoulder and she had to stop herself from crushing it. 

"They'll try to leave the city." She heard Thor say, so she stood.

"We can't let 'em, not even one. Rhodey!"

"We gotta move out. Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats, I'll sweep for stragglers, be right behind you." Steve said.

"What about the core?" Clint asked as Cassie watched the last few Ultrons being destroyed by Vision and War Machine.  


"I'll protect it." Wanda volunteered. Clint turned to her in surprise. "It's my job."

Clint nodded and started out. "Nat. Cass. This way." 

"You have a silent thing with the Maximoff chick?" Cassie asked as they ran.

"You have a thing with her brother? Pickin' you up and runnin' off with you." 

"He's nice. Fell in with the wrong crowd. I can relate." Cassie said, running ahead of them.

"Cass- I'm gonna hotwire-" Clint shrugged as she disappeared from view and wrenched open the door of a two-seater convertible. "Only enough room for the two of us, anyway." He said to Natasha.

She was already on the helicarrier when the city fell and she watched in horror as it disintegrated just a few moments later. When she greeted the last lifeboat, she was dismayed to see Wanda crying over Pietro's body. "He saved my life." Clint whispered. 

Cassie turned into his arms and cried for a few minutes, before pulling away. "What about... Tony? Thor? Everyone else."

Clint just nodded, prompting her to break down further. Clint helped her down to the bridge, where Fury stood staring at the hole that used to be Novi Grad, Sokovia. "This is the best we could have hoped for, Campbell." Fury said, turning and walking up to her as Clint disappeared from her side.

"I know. I know. This is just... we saved as many as we could but... Pietro died... it's just..."

"You thinking of getting _out_ of the superhero game?"

"No. Yes. I don't know. I just... this isn't, at all, how I pictured my life five years ago. When Phil told me that you okayed my release, I... expected to get my Bachelor's and spend the rest of my life in a lab. This... death, carnage... so much destruction."

"If it weren't for Phil, you'd've been in the Fridge when HYDRA took it. I wasn't planning to let you out."

Cassie turned to him. "You put me in a cell. I've always wondered why. Surely there were better places to put me. Back then, I was just a normal, non-super, child. You could've found a home for me, but you put me in a cell like a criminal." She wouldn't ask. Operation Playtime Distortion wasn't something she wanted to know, she was sure of it.

"Clint mentioned that you might be remembering things. Are you entirely certain you want to be askin' questions, Cassie?"

"You put me in a cell because I did something to deserve it, didn't I?"

"You don't want that answer, Cassie. If I were you, I'd do anything in my power to keep those memories under lock and key."

"Thank you, sir." She said, before turning and walking away.

********************

"We going for shawarma, this time?" Natasha asked, as they approached a Quinjet set to fly them back to New York.

"What?" Cassie asked, looking over at her.

"After the whole thing with Loki and the Chitauris, we went out and Tony bought us shawarma. It was good." Clint said, putting his arm around Cassie's shoulders.

She turned her head slightly. "Clint, can I talk to you?"

"Course. Hey, Tasha, get the jet started. We'll be in in a minute." Clint called, before leading Cassie away from the jet. "What's wrong?"

"When we get back to New York... I'm not going to stay."

"Wha-what do you mean?"

"I'm not quitting or-or running away, this time, but... I need some time to... find myself again. This whole event, it just showed me that... I started running long before Austria. The last few years, I've been running. I ran from telling Phil about Faye, I ran from telling anybody about what Loki did to me. I dropped everything on that one. Stopped going to school, just drinking and working and getting as little sleep as I could survive on, which is very little when you're a superhuman." She looked down at her hands, the dirt and blood caked under her fingernails. "Clint, I don't _want_ to run any more. I want to try for a... a new normal. I want to go back to school, finish my Bachelor's degree. I want to... work in one of Tony's labs again and sleep without fear for a while."

"And you need... space for that?"

"No. I would want you to come with me, or visit me between missions or something."

"I've been considering retirement. I mean, Laura's about to have another baby and she might need some help around the farm. You willing to live-"

"On the farm? Hell, no." She said, with a smile. "But if you live at the farm, I'll visit... as often as I can."

"And where would you be living? Where would you want to start this new normal?" Clint asked, taking her hand and walking back toward the jet.

"I don't know. I haven't had time to think about it. Maybe, West Coast again. Washington, Oregon, maybe." Cassie said, as she walked up the ramp to sit in one of the jump seats.

"What's on the West Coast?" Steve asked.

"She's got to talk to you, Boss." Clint said, pulling Cassie out of the seat pushing her toward Steve and replacing her in the chair.

Cassie looked down, then up into Steve's eyes. "I want to go back to school. Life's short... unless you get frozen for 70 years. I... haven't accomplished any of the things I set out to do when I got released from the Fridge and I just... want to finish something."

"On the West Coast? There aren't any schools in New York?"

"I... I just feel like there might be too many distractions if I stay in New York."

"Distractions. Okay. Will you be coming back after you get your degree?" Steve asked.

"Of course. I love being an Avenger. I love the team, but I have to take this break. I promise it won't be long. I'm only 12 credits from my Bachelor's and then, I can come back."

"You're gonna need a job while you're playing student." Tony walked up. "I've got a small R&D lab in Olympia. You wouldn't be interested in running it, would you?"

"What?"

"Yeah, guy I had on it before had to transfer, or something believable, like that. I don't, actually, have a lab in Olympia, but I could by tomorrow. We doin' this?"

Cassie scoffed in surprise. "People are going to complain about favoritism, Tony."

"Who? _To_ who? Not to me, and Pepper loves you. Besides, who better to head up my experimental R &D division than an exper-"

Cassie put her hand up. "Don't finish that sentence. This is... amazing, thank you." She stepped toward him. "I'm gonna hug you."

"Don't do that. Oh, y-you don't listen." Tony put his hands up as Cassie wrapped her arms around him. "Maybe I shouldn't put you in charge, if you can't follow instructions."

"Shut up, Tony. Don't ruin it." She said, squeezing him before pulling back and looking around the jet.

"You'll come back, though?" Steve asked, again.

"Definitely." She said, with a smile.

"Might be a good time to mention that I, uh, am gonna be heading out, too. Need some family time after what just happened." Clint piped up.

"Nobody saw that coming, did they?" Tony quipped, heading toward the cockpit.

"We won't even be in the same state, Stark. Shut up." Clint said as Cassie looked away from Steve.

"Are you and Clint-" Steve whispered.

"This isn't a conversation for-" Cassie started.

"Yes. Since the party, Steve." Natasha called from the cockpit

"It's no one's business!" Clint shouted, his hand going over his face.

"You're not wrong, Barton. I'd rather not hear about it, honestly." Stark answered.

"I thought you weren't... dating?" Steve whispered.

"I wasn't... but... life is short. Too short. I realized that after Ultron attacked... I'm sorry."

"I really... have poor timing with women." Steve said, walking away.

Cassie flopped down next to Clint. "I feel like we just kicked someone's grandpa." Clint said, under his breath.

Cassie giggled and hit him on the shoulder. "Stop it. That's... not funny."

"Yeah, it is. Come on. He's a hundred."

"And? Mind and body of a 30 year old. You?"

"That's low, Queenie. I expected better from you." Clint smirked, though.

"I've never claimed to be a _nice_ person."

"Oh, but you are."

"Says you." She whispered, leaning her head back against the metal of the jet.

**********


End file.
